In Detail, In Brief: Safer homes for social housing tenants
Thousands of Bristol South families living in social housing will soon have more rights to ensure repairs to their homes are dealt with faster. The new rules, which take effect from 30 November 2026, set clear legal deadlines for action including investigating and making safe any dangerous issue within 24 hours.
Sadly, Bristol City Council’s recent track record on housing repairs has been poor. It was revealed earlier this year that a flawed IT project meant they couldn’t trust their own figures which indicated over 20,000 outstanding repairs across the city. This failure has meant that too many tenants have had to get in touch with me about delays to resolve serious problems in their homes.
For these serious but not dangerous issues, the new rules will mean the landlord must investigate the problem within 10 working days. Tenants must be provided with a written summary of what is wrong and carry out urgent safety work within five working days.
These new rights follow changes last October which specifically related to damp and mould hazards that presented a significant risk of harm to tenants.
In the private rented sector, the Renters’ Rights Act passed last year will extend these new rights
following a consultation. This new law already protects tenants from “no-fault” Section 21 evictions which have been banned, has outlawed demands for more than a month rent in advance and placed restrictions on frequency of rent increases.
