The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has made its direction clear: it wants evidence that landlords’ systems work, not just that they exist.
Its new Corporate Plan 2026-2029, published on 4 November 2026, frames everything around two imperatives, more homes and better homes. Its latest Regulatory Casework Review shows what “better” means in practice.
Running through both documents is one theme that underpins almost everything else: landlords need to know the condition of their homes. Accurate stock condition data is how you show tenants are safe, how you plan investment, and how you prepare for a wave of new standards arriving between now and 2035.
This article looks at what the regulator is saying, what good practice looks like, and why a single, well-scoped stock condition survey can serve several regulatory regimes at once.
What the Regulator Is Saying
The RSH aims to inspect every large landlord (those owning 1,000 or more social homes) at least once every four years. By the end of March 2026 it had inspected just over 45% of them. More than half of large landlords are still waiting for their first inspection under the new consumer standards, and most of those visits will happen in the next 18 months.
The grades so far suggest few landlords will find it easy. Of 178 large landlords with a consumer grade, 50 are at C1, 81 at C2, 40 at C3 and 7 at C4. C2 means some weaknesses, with improvement needed. The regulator also notes that the Safety and Quality Standard is one of the two standards where it most often finds landlords falling short.
The Casework Review, published on 28 July 2026, sharpens the message. The regulator keeps finding cases where statutory checks were carried out but the follow-up actions were never completed. It also stresses accurate information on homes and assets, and using that information to spot risks before they become regulatory concerns. As Capsticks put it in their analysis, the focus is shifting from whether policies and frameworks exist to evidence that they work in practice.
What Good and Poor Look Like
The Casework Review draws on published regulatory judgements, and the contrast is instructive.
At one end, The Guinness Partnership’s 2026 inspection found good data management and strong oversight of property conditions. It also found the landlord was using tenant information to tailor services and inform investment decisions. Legal & General Affordable Homes was highlighted for using robust property and tenant data to support governance and contractor management.
At the other end, Tandridge District Council received a C4 grade, the lowest available. The regulator could not be assured that legal health and safety requirements were being met, and it found significant shortcomings in stock condition information and repairs reporting.
The difference isn’t the size of the organisation or the sophistication of its software. It’s whether the landlord genuinely knows what condition its homes are in, and can prove it.
The Regulatory Pile-Up
The Corporate Plan lists several new requirements landing over the next few years. Almost every one of them depends on knowing the condition of your homes.
| When | Requirement | What it asks of your condition data |
|---|---|---|
| 6 April 2026 | Residential PEEPs (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans) in specified buildings | Accurate building and resident information |
| 1 May 2026 | Electrical safety checks for all existing social tenancies, with a new TSM (Tenant Satisfaction Measure) for large landlords from 2026-27 | Complete, current records of installations and inspection dates |
| October 2026 | Evidence of assurance against the revised Transparency, Influence and Accountability standard and the new Competence and Conduct standard | Reliable data to report to tenants and boards |
| 30 November 2026 | Awaab’s Law Phase 2: fixed timescales for a wider range of HHSRS hazards | Hazard-level data and property history |
| 2027 | Awaab’s Law Phase 3: almost all remaining HHSRS hazards | Full HHSRS assessment across the stock |
| 1 April 2030 | Minimum energy efficiency standard: EPC C or equivalent | Energy performance and fabric data |
| 2035 | New Decent Homes Standard, including a new definition of disrepair, a revised component list, expanded core facilities and stronger damp and mould expectations | Component condition, age and remaining life |
For many landlords, the risk is not any single standard. It’s collecting data separately for each one, ending up with records that don’t agree, and paying for several visits to the same home.
One Survey, Many Standards
A stock condition survey (SCS) is often scoped narrowly, recording component ages and costs to feed a 30-year investment plan. That’s still essential, but it leaves a lot of value on the table. A survey visit is one of the few times a qualified professional is inside a tenant’s home, and the same visit can gather evidence for several regimes at once.
A well-scoped survey should capture:
- Component condition and remaining life, aligned to the new Decent Homes component list, so investment planning and decency reporting draw on the same data.
- HHSRS hazards, assessed and rated by a competent surveyor, so you have a baseline ahead of Awaab’s Law Phases 2 and 3.
- Damp and mould indicators, with photographs and moisture readings, to support early intervention.
- Energy and fabric data, including insulation, heating and windows, to plan the route to EPC C by 2030.
- Safety-critical observations, such as visible electrical defects, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and fire doors, flagged for immediate follow-up.
The point isn’t to make every survey longer. It’s to agree a data standard up front, so each visit feeds one trusted record of every home. That record is what the regulator wants to see: the same evidence used for board reporting, tenant communication and investment decisions.
The other half of the job is closing the loop. A survey that identifies a hazard but has no clear route to a completed, recorded repair is exactly the gap the regulator keeps finding. Findings should be prioritised, assigned and tracked to completion.
Questions for Boards and Asset Teams
Whether or not your inspection is on the horizon, these questions are a useful test of where you stand.
- What proportion of our homes have had an internal condition survey in the last five years?
- Do our condition, compliance and repairs systems agree with each other about the same home?
- Can we show, for every safety check, that the remedial actions were completed and when?
- Do we have a current HHSRS baseline ready for Awaab’s Law Phases 2 and 3?
- Do we know which homes are below EPC C, and what it will cost to fix them by 2030?
- How will our component data map to the new Decent Homes Standard?
- If the regulator asked tomorrow, could we evidence all of this without a scramble?
If the honest answer to any of these is “not sure”, that’s worth knowing now rather than during an inspection.
How PM+ Can Help
PM+ is a RICS-regulated surveying and advisory consultancy working with housing associations and registered providers across England, Scotland and Wales. We carry out stock condition surveys, HHSRS and damp and mould assessments, and fire risk assessments. Our strategic asset management consultancy helps landlords turn that data into investment plans their boards can stand behind.
We can help you scope a survey programme that serves several standards at once, review the quality of the data you already hold, or provide independent assurance ahead of an inspection. Our directly employed team works alongside a network of vetted surveyors, giving flexible capacity across the UK.
If you’d like to talk about getting your stock condition data inspection-ready, get in touch.
