Reform & Revolution 10 - The birth of Decent Homes

Over the coming months 24housing will unravel the top 10 events, chosen by our panel of experts, that have shaped social housing in the last 60 years.

Number 10: Decent Homes 2001

The Decent Homes programme was launched in 2001 to bring all social housing stock up to a decent standard i.e. warm, weatherproof and have reasonably modern facilities. Since 2001, more than £33billion has been spent by councils and housing associations. The Government expects that by the end of 2010, 95% of all social housing will meet this standard. In December 2009, housing minister John Healey announced a full scale assessment into the programme after 27 local authorities had seen a rise in their non-decent stock.

When Nick Raynsford left his post as housing minister in 2001, the Decent Homes programme – which set out to improve the entire social housing stock within 10 years – had just begun. In an exclusive interview with Ross Macmillan, he recalls a decade of decency, and tells Ross Macmillan why no amount of criticism can take away the pride millions of people now have in their homes.

What informed the Decent Homes programme?

This picture was taken as the snow fell just before Christmas last year. The Charlton Triangle estate, which is in my constituency and has 1,300 homes, has been totally transformed by the Decent Homes programme. It was built in the 1940s, but had been neglected badly and got a bad reputation. Now, it has been entirely renovated to a high standard and the people and community are now extremely proud to be part of it.

At the heart of the Decent Homes programme was the very clear evidence of a backlog of substandard housing, particularly council housing, in very real need of investment all over the country.

I felt very strongly that the condition of much of our existing stock was shameful and not actually fit for people to live in in the 1990s. This was partly because the previous Conservative government had cut back savagely on investment, not just on new council homes, but on repairs and maintenance. It was in danger of being entirely written off as a substandard second rate option, associated with poor conditioned property that was poorly maintained and increasingly occupied by very poor people.

What sorts of things did you see as a councillor?

I was made well aware of some of the older council housing estates in desperate need of regeneration as a local councillor, although I confess; I was just as guilty as anyone else of giving emphasis to new building. Traditionally, it had always been the sexier option, while repairs and maintenance was the poor relation. Looking back to local authority performance in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s where was the focus? On development. It was abundantly clear to me as housing minister that we had to change that. So in 2000, we set out with a very clear objective to improve the condition of every social home in the country.

I remember William Parnell House, which was built before the war in an area called Sands End, in Fulham, which I represented. It had huge problems. That’s now been demolished. It was not feasible to improve it economically given the serious problems about the condition of the property and the way it had been neglected. Surrounding that there were some properties built in the 1960s which again were not very well maintained and offered a pretty grim environment for most of the tenants living there. So those kinds of experiences have been with me for sometime.

Did you have to convince government about the priority of repairs and maintenance?

Not really. I think Civil Servants understood this and were sympathetic to what we were trying to do. I worked extremely closely with Mike Gahagan, the former director of housing at the department at that time. He was entirely supportive. Our difficulties lay in convincing the Treasury that there had to be adequate funding to make this possible, and in particular, funding for the Arms Length Management Organisations which was an entirely new element. We did convince Treasury and we got the extra resources, but Treasury is never easy to prise money out of.

Where did the programme’s focus come from?

A lot of post-war thinking had been based on the lack of basic amenities in the home, so the lack of a bathroom or an indoor toilet. Most of that problem had been tackled in the 1990s, but there was a serious problem around things like wind tightness and dryness. An awful lot of properties had leaking roofs and old windows – most were metal and were fitted in the 1950s – which meant they were prone to drafts and didn’t shut well. Therefore, we needed a standard that took account of the property’s condition. The home had to become the kind of place you’d want to bring your friends to, a place you could live in without feeling ashamed of where you were. I actually think this has been one of the biggest success stories of the present government.

Were you able to see the programme’s impact in your constituency?

In my own patch of Greenwich and Woolwich there’s been enormous improvements in housing, especially in Charlton Triangle where the condition of much of the council housing stock is now completely different to what it was like in 1996. I just think of one individual – an 80-year old lady living in Charlton – who came to see me at my constituency surgery a while back wondering when the Decent Homes Programme was going to reach her home. Obviously I took up the case with Greenwich Council. When I heard that the building work had started in October last year (2008) that was a real sense of pleasure knowing this was going to transform the life of an elderly woman living in a property that had a leaking roof and windows that weren’t draft proof and which needed modern facilities.

This really underlines the programme’s legacy; the human impact. The millions of households who now live in homes they feel proud of – where they can invite their friends without feeling ashamed of their house, and, who can enjoy a warm and comfortable house without being troubled by huge heating bills and leaks.
 
Do you have any regrets about the programme?

There are one or two estates which are so bad they’re going to have to be demolished, so they’ve been excluded from the Decent Homes programme – because clearly it’s silly to waste a lot of money improving properties about to be demolished. The problem is that the delay in implementing big renovation programmes means you’ve still got some homes there that are still going to be standing in 2010 that won’t have been demolished and which haven’t been improved. That is, in one sense, a failure and I regret that, but I don’t allow that in anyway to undermine my belief of what’s been a huge transformational change in an enormous proportion of the council housing stock in Greenwich, in the same way as all over the county.

Do you wish you could have seen the programme through as housing minister?

When I left office it was at the point of time we had developed the proposals and set up the funding mechanism, giving the pledge in the manifesto and it was then implemented by my successors. I don’t think anyone as a minister can expect to be in the same post for 10 years, but I would have been happy if I had perhaps a couple more years as housing minister. I think I would have used it well and certainly would have been able to bring forward some of the things I initiated, including the Decent Homes programme.

Although I wasn’t housing minister, I still took a considerable interest in the programme as local government minister and visited homes all over the country. The pride people had in showing their new kitchen, in showing you their sitting room, which had been double-glazed and which kept the draft out. They were able to feel utterly proud about their home because it was in good condition and they could feel entirely comfortable entertaining people in their home.

Do you accept the target of improving all social housing within 10 years was over ambitious?

Like the 2016 zero-carbon target, it’s a wonderful energiser. Even if we don’t achieve it 100%, we will have driven up standards so enormously because of it that it will have been well worth while. I don’t resolve for a moment from setting highly ambitious targets even if you don’t entirely meet all of them. By the end of this year 3.5 million homes will have been brought up to the Decent Homes standard – it won’t have been wholly successful because not every home will have been improved – but if we end up with only 90% of the social housing stock meeting the Decent Homes standard by 2010 that is still an amazing achievement.

Nick Raynsford is Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich. He was the housing minister between 1999 and 2001.

2001 – What else was happening?

• Apple launches iPod.
• September 11 terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon.
• Politician and novelist Jeffery Archer is sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
• The two boys charged with murdering toddler Jamie Bulger are released, eight years after they were jailed.
• A billionaire businessman from California becomes the first paying passenger to go to outer space.