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Housing: Insulation

Answer

Following the repeal of the Fitness Standard under the 2004 Housing Act, the Department for Communities and Local Government no longer makes, or requires from local authorities, an assessment of the number of homes unfit for habitation. The Housing Health and Safety Rating System introduced a new approach to the evaluation of potential risks to health and safety from any deficiencies identified in dwellings. It was introduced in the Housing Act 2004, and came into force on 6 April 2006, replacing the "fitness standard" as the statutory minimum standard for housing and as one component of the decent homes measurement.The Department does not set out minimum guidelines on insulation for existing housing.The English Housing Survey provides a national-only estimate of the number of dwellings that do not meet the insulation requirements of the thermal comfort criterion of the Decent Homes Standard. These requirements are set out in the Guidance for the Decent Homes Standard, available at:"http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/decenthome"Estimates for the number of dwellings that do not meet the insulation requirements of the thermal comfort criterion of the Decent Homes Standard in 2008 (the most recent estimates available) are set out in the following table:

Number and percentage of homes not meeting the insulation requirements of the thermal comfort criterion of the Decent Homes standard, 2008
	Number (Thousand)	Percentage of the tenure
Owner-occupied	1,488	10
Private rented	531	16
Social rented	363	9
All dwellings	2,381	11
Source: English Housing Survey, 2008.

The Department does not hold this information for Hyndburn or Haslingden.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

26186; 519 c653W

Session

2010-12

Subjects

Housing Insulation

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk