Floored: Why Social Housing Tenants Are Still Waiting for a Basic Essential

A panel examines why hundreds of thousands of social housing tenants move into homes without flooring, and what landlords can do about it. 

At a glance 

• Providing flooring at the point of let is a saving to the business overall once reduced void costs, rent arrears, complaints and improved tenancy sustainment are accounted for. 

• An estimated 760,000 adults in social housing have no carpet or flooring in their bedrooms and living areas, yet only around 10% of social landlords provide floor coverings at the point of let. 

• Flooring was removed from the Decent Homes Standard, raising concerns that landlords who had begun changing their policies will revert to previous practice. 

Research by the Longleigh Foundation and Altair, conducted through MRI Software’s Resident Voice Index, surveyed nearly 8,000 social housing tenants. Four in five had moved into a home that was either partially floored or had no flooring at all, and almost half moved into a home with no floor coverings whatsoever. 

Longleigh commissioned the research after seeing repeated cases of families arriving in homes with bare concrete floors. The absence of flooring leaves residents feeling poor and stigmatised, and reluctant to invite people into their homes. 

Crisis support across the UK is inconsistent. Scotland operates a statutory scheme that includes flooring. In England, 48 of just over 150 upper-tier local authorities have closed their local welfare schemes, and the new Crisis and Resilience Fund permits flooring provision only where local authorities choose to fund it. Flooring cannot be included in a service charge. 

The most immediate change available to landlords requires no policy reform or new budget. Where flooring is in good condition, it should be cleaned and left in place, with the incoming tenant’s agreement. External contractors should be checked to ensure they are not removing flooring as standard against stated policy. 

Thirteen Group has evidenced that the cost of providing flooring is offset by reductions in rental arrears and void costs and by improvements in tenancy sustainment. Orbit has begun installing flooring in all of its relets. Further benefits include reduced complaints about noise, improved thermal comfort, higher customer satisfaction and improved staff satisfaction from letting a good quality home. Landlord purchasing power, long-term contractor agreements and social value clauses further reduce the unit cost compared with what an individual tenant pays, making provision a saving to the business overall. 

https://altairltd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Final-Report-Longleigh-Flooring-final.pdf 

Practical steps for housing providers 

• Stop removing serviceable flooring as standard during the void process, and check that external contractors are not doing so against stated policy. 

• Where existing flooring is in good condition, clean it, assess it and offer it to the incoming tenant with a simple disclaimer if needed. 

• Walk through void properties from the perspective of the tenant moving in, and ask whether the home is one a person can immediately feel safe and comfortable in. 

• Consider providing flooring at the point of let in all relets, and pilot the approach where a blanket policy is not yet possible, prioritising households moving from homelessness, temporary accommodation or domestic abuse. 

• Track the wider impact of flooring provision, including void turnaround, rent arrears, tenancy sustainment, complaints about noise and customer satisfaction, to build an internal business case. 

• Use procurement scale and long-term contractor agreements to reduce unit costs and unlock social value, recognising that landlord purchasing power is significantly greater than that of an individual tenant. 

• Share practice openly across the sector, including challenges and lessons learned, so that good examples inform policy debate and help shift cultural expectations.