Residential stock condition survey code of practice

To encourage a sector-wide approach to collecting information about the standard of residents’ homes, we have supported the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in its work to develop a new code of practice to create a standardised approach to carrying out surveys of housing stock.

The Better Social Housing Review recommended that social landlords improve how they collect and use data – both about the condition of the homes they manage and about who lives in them.

We responded with a programme of work called Knowing our Homes which found that, beyond assessing compliance with the Decent Homes Standard and other statutory obligations, there is not a consistent approach to collecting information during a stock condition survey.

We also found that housing associations are increasingly aiming to conduct 100% rolling stock condition surveys every five years, so it was clear that there was an opportunity to improve consistency in how we assess the quality of homes to make sure they’re as good as they can be for residents.

To encourage a sector-wide approach to collecting information about the condition of residents’ homes, we have supported the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in its work to develop a new code of practice to create a standardised approach to carrying out surveys of housing stock.

NHF response and next steps

We have now submitted our response to RICS’ consultation.

Our view, informed by member feedback, is that the draft code of practice is a useful document and it effectively describes approaches that are already standard practice for many housing associations. It will be a helpful tool to create a more standardised baseline approach for stock condition surveys across the sector.

We also suggested a range of additions to further strengthen the code of practice.

RICS will now review all responses to the consultation before updating and finalising the code of practice. We will share the final document with NHF members once it is published.