Why Healthy Homes Start With The Basics, Not Just Compliance

We need to stop treating compliance as the goal 

One of the strongest themes from our conversation was this idea that too much of the sector is still driven by compliance. Of course compliance matters. It matters hugely. But when compliance becomes the ambition, we have a problem. 

Richard put it well when he said: 

“Becoming compliant with legislation, that’s fine when you’re talking about gas compliance and things like that. But compliant with housing quality standards or energy efficiency standards, that really shouldn’t be the target.” 

Because too often the conversation is about whether a home has passed a standard, rather than whether it is actually healthy, affordable to heat, and fit for the future. 

Those are not the same thing. 

Healthy homes need to be the baseline 

Richard has worked across property and housing for years, and one of the things that has helped shape his thinking is his involvement with the Buildings Action Coalition, which gives him visibility of what is happening internationally. 

What that has reinforced for him is that the barriers are not really technical. 

We know poor ventilation contributes to poor air quality. 
We know poor air quality affects health. 
We know cold homes are bad for people. 
We know damp and mould are not just maintenance issues. 
We know that replacing like for like without thinking about future performance often stores up problems for later. 

The challenge is not whether we know enough to act. It is whether we are prepared to organise ourselves differently and make healthy homes the starting point. 

A practical approach, not a perfect one 

What I liked about Richard’s approach at Waverley is that it is grounded in pragmatism. He is not pretending someone is about to arrive with a cheque for millions to transform everything overnight. Instead, he talks about making progress through three routes. 

• First, understanding the archetypes across the stock and what an “ideal” future version of those homes looks like. 

• Second, making sure component replacement is aligned to future standards, so when things are replaced, they are replaced in the right order and to the right performance level. 

• Third, using inspections and available data to spot issues and make changes earlier. 

It is practical and realistic, and recognises that sequencing matters. 

As Richard said: 

“We just need to take the opportunities that we’ve got, accepting nobody’s going to hand us a cheque for 30 million quid to go and do most of it overnight, so we’ve just got to be adaptive and plan accordingly.” 

The small change that could make a big difference 

One of the most interesting things Richard has introduced is also one of the simplest. When staff go out to do inspections, they are now taking portable air quality monitors with them. 

That means someone might go out to look at a kitchen or inspect a property for one issue, but while they are there, they can also understand more about the indoor environment. 

This matters, because if nobody is measuring air quality, it is very easy for it to remain invisible. And if it remains invisible, it is easy for it to be ignored. 

Change starts when something becomes part of everyday practice, not a side conversation. 

Why air quality still gets overlooked 

The frustrating thing is that air quality is still not embedded into the way many landlords think about homes. There are organisations doing brilliant work in this space, but across the sector, it is still far too easy for ventilation and indoor air quality to be treated as secondary issues. 

Richard was very clear on why. 

“It’s not something that’s mandated. It’s not something that’s measured, typically.” 

Social housing is often managed through what is required, monitored and regulated. If something is not part of compliance, it becomes easier to delay, overlook or deprioritise, even when we know it matters. 

And yet if we are serious about being responsible landlords, we cannot only focus on the things the regulator is asking us about today. We also have to think about what is affecting residents now, whether or not it has yet made its way into the framework. 

Richard also said:

“If you want to claim to be a responsible landlord, you need to know the answers to the questions that you’re not going to be asked.” 

I think that is exactly right. 

We also need to challenge where money goes 

Richard  talked about a situation where another  landlord was spending heavily on kitchens because residents liked them and rents were relatively high. 

Now, of course residents should have decent kitchens. No one is saying they should not. But his challenge was whether landlords are sometimes prioritising visible upgrades over the things that make the biggest difference to health, comfort and affordability. 

He said: 

“First we need to make sure that the homes are healthy and affordable, that should be the baseline. And then we can think about giving them the things that they’re asking for.” 

I think that is a really important point. The sector has got very used to measuring satisfaction through things people can easily see. But residents also need homes that are easier to heat, safer to live in, and better for their health. 

A lovely kitchen in a home with poor ventilation and high heating costs is not the win some think it is. 

The opportunity to build a stronger health case 

We all know the stories. We have all heard examples of children with asthma improving in better-performing homes, or families coping better in warmer homes. But the evidence base still needs strengthening. 

Richard talked about work he had been involved in where residents were willing to share health information if it could help make the case for better homes in future. 

People understand the value of this work. They understand that healthier homes are not a nice extra, they are fundamental. 

As Richard said: 

“I would love a properly measured case study on performance around health, affordability and outcomes.” 

So would I. 

Because the more clearly we can evidence the impact of healthier homes, the harder it becomes for anyone to dismiss this as a ‘nice to have’. 

Change happens when teams own it 

Richard had only been in post a short time, and he overheard someone in the team saying to a colleague: 

“No, we don’t do it like that anymore.” 

He said that in that moment he thought, that will do nicely. And he was right. 

Because that is what real change looks like. It is not always dramatic. It is not always a big launch or a glossy strategy. Sometimes it is simply hearing that the thinking has shifted. 

The team have understood the why. They have bought into doing things differently and they can see the value of it. 

Final thoughts 

What I took from my conversation with Richard is that we do not need to have everything solved before we start doing better. We do not need perfect data, perfect budgets or perfect conditions. 

But we do need to ask better questions. 

Are our homes healthy? 
Are we measuring the things that matter? 
Are we prioritising the right investments? 
Are we helping residents live in homes that support health and wellbeing, not undermine it? 

For me, that is the real challenge to the sector. 

Healthy homes start with the basics. Warmth. Ventilation. Air quality. Good building performance. Affordability. 

Not just compliance. 

And the sooner we treat those things as the baseline, the better.