By Rob Gershon, HQN Residents’ Network associate and social housing tenant

There’s a shrinking amount of time left for responses to the government’s new Decent Homes Standard consultation (10 September) – and HQN has produced a guide for residents to the particulars of what’s in it.

As is the case with most government consultations, it’s not really intended to garner radical or innovative ideas. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has set out a list of things that it thinks should be in it – and like a lot of resident consultations organised by landlords, contributors are asked to rubber-stamp changes that have already been decided.

It’d be a little unfair to pretend that this is the whole story, though. Although the secretary of state and housing ministers aren’t going to be sat down with a mug of Horlicks reading through all the responses, the apparatus of government does mean civil servants and officials will be paying closer attention to what’s in them. This means there’s a genuine opportunity for residents to indirectly get their ideas in front of ministers, and so it’s always worth spending the time responding if you can.

I know as well as anybody that this is easier said than done: a combination of finding the time to fill in the online form, finding the right framing for it, and a lack of faith in whether it makes any difference are just some of the barriers to being bothered to do it.

The interminably dry nature of consultations themselves doesn’t really help, with both the official form of the questions and the really quite dull ideas presented in this particular consultation making it difficult to get excited about.

This time, though, I’ve convinced myself to make a response, because it’s likely to be a long time before governments seek any further opinions on what qualifies as a decent home. I’m not going to list the points I’m going to raise – I haven’t even decided myself yet – but I wanted to try and make the case for you, if you’re a resident, or managing homes and neighbourhoods, to add your ideas to the consultation, too.

What the consultation is missing is humanity, and any sense of what homes actually mean to people. In an environment where both landlords and government still think of peoples’ homes in terms of units and stock to be maintained, it’s only natural for the sense of home, and what it feels like, to be overlooked, but civil servants, and even ministers, are humans too and shouldn’t limit themselves to thinking you can sling in a bit of carpet and have the job done.

It might be better to decide what the value of a floor covering is and let residents choose their own, allowing flexibility in cost and materials where necessary. I might have to write that one down.

Home extends beyond fixtures and fittings, and the measly ‘reasonable levels’ of comfort and safety the consultation weakly suggests. It’s inextricably linked with our sense of self, of place, of community and our individual and shared histories. They are the places we get our exam results, bring new life into the world and bid farewell to lives lived.

Our homes might just be a semblance of bricks, tiles, beams, joists, breeze blocks, and damp and mould that the ombudsman hasn’t found out about yet, but when we get homes right they are invisibly, intangibly something more. Clearly, we can’t legislate for how people feel but if the government is serious about its commitments to homes and communities – and a year in, it’s really not clear yet whether it is – it should look beyond a rug and making sure people are the correct level of cold in winter and uncomfortably warm in summer.

We must also consider that sometimes we don’t get homes right, too. For many, they are not a place of safety or security, and whether the threats are internal or external, there’s a long way to go for too many people to feel safe and settled. The Decent Homes Standard consultation might not be the place to re-legislate the regulation of Social Housing Act, but it shouldn’t ignore the role that landlords themselves have played, and are still playing in too many cases, in ruining any chance of a sense of home.

Government policy still reaches into homes in too many cases, too. It’s been 12 years since the bedroom tax kicked down front doors and saw the Department for Work and Pensions meddling in things that should never have concerned it. For too many people, this ruined any sense that their home is anything other than a set of components they’re allowed to live in temporarily.

I can’t tell you what to focus on in the consultation on decent homes, but if you’ve not heard about it before or have dismissed it as pointless, I’d urge you to follow the links provided to share your thoughts. The current government is making some of the right noises about proposed changes to improve the quality of social housing, and this is a good way to put them to the test, even if you’re a bit cynical like me.

Here’s quick overview for those that might want to take part:

Do I have to answer every question?

No, you can skip questions or select ‘don’t know’.

Is there a deadline for responses?

The consultation closes at 11:45pm on 10 September 2025.

How do I respond to the consultation?

You can respond to the consultation online by clicking here.