Research shows 726,000 private rented homes and 87,000 social homes could still fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard (DHS) by 2035.
A government consultation on the DHS has proposed that all rented homes – both private and social – must comply with a tougher standard by 2035.
However, new analysis by property data firm Inventory Base warns, at the current pace, hundreds of thousands of homes may still fall short of even the existing standard.
The DHS has set the minimum standard for social housing since 2021. From 1st May 2026, it will also apply to private landlords under the Renters’ Rights Act.
Following a consultation in 2025, the government published the updated DHS in 2026, after almost 430,000 social homes in England were found to be in poor condition.
Inventory Base based its findings on the English Housing Survey 2024-25. In the private rented sector, the number of non-decent homes fell from 1.45 million in 2008 to 1.09 million in 2024, but progress has been uneven with a 6.1% increase in 2024 alone.
What’s more, social housing saw a decline from 1.07 million to 428,000, although some years showed little improvement.
If current trends continue, 726,000 private rented homes and 87,000 social homes could still fail the current DHS by 2035.
‘Nine years is a long time to tell tenants to wait for homes to become properly fit for habitation. A fixed 2035 deadline is at least a step forward, if only because it replaces vague ambition with something more concrete,’ Sián Hemming-Metcalfe, operations director at Inventory Base, said.
‘But the uncomfortable truth is that we are not moving fast enough. Hundreds of thousands of homes already fail today’s Decent Homes Standard. By 2035, the risk is not that we fall short of the new benchmark, it’s that we still haven’t met the old one.’
‘If the government is serious about every rented home meeting the new standard by 2035, it will take sustained investment, stronger inspection schedules, and enforcement with actual teeth,’ she continued. ‘Without that, a great many tenants will still be living in homes that are neither decent nor safe, regardless of what legislation promises.’
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