18 October 2002
Around 32% of the 217,222 homes owned by 17 of the largest housing associations currently fail the standard, says one survey.
It suggests that 70% of the unfit homes do not make the mark because of disrepair – one of four criteria a house must satisfy to achieve the standard. The others are fitness for habitation, modern facilities and thermal comfort.
But in some cases the RSLs were not sure whether a house was decent or not. 'Ambiguity, difficulty in gathering information, and the need for subjective judgements, led to wide variations in estimates,' says a report, published on October 9.
Just five RSLs provided cost information. This led the corporation to calculate that it would cost an average of £8,600 to bring each home up to standard by 2010 – the target date set by the government.
Four RSLs, two of which were from London, said they would need more than eight years to achieve the standard.
Meanwhile, a wider survey of RSLs completing regulatory returns revealed that at least 265,822 properties (27%) need to be improved.
Of homes transferred from councils following a stock transfer, 37% currently fail the standard, compared with 19% of other RSL homes.
PFoct2002