Housing providers know where they need to be by 2035. The challenge now is building an asset management strategy to get there, writes Dan Germann, Managing Director of housing regeneration specialist Durkan Regen
The sector has spent much of this year discussing what the new Decent Homes Standard means - and that’s understandable.
The reforms represent the most significant update to housing quality standards in nearly two decades, with mandatory requirements covering safety, repairs, efficiency, comfort and damp and mould.
Housing providers now know where they need to be by the 2035 deadline. The more important question is how they get there.
In my view, the Decent Homes Standard is too often being treated as a compliance challenge when it’s really as much an asset management and delivery challenge.
Meeting the standard will require far more than a programme of repairs and retrofit.
It will require housing providers to make informed and holistic decisions about investment, funding, procurement, stock condition and resident and community engagement.
And it will need an expert and specialist supply chain, ready to respond.
The new Decent Homes Standard is certainly not arriving in isolation. Housing providers are also responding to building safety requirements, Awaab’s Law and energy-efficiency targets, while seeking to improve resident satisfaction and increase the supply of affordable homes.
These priorities compete for funding, skills and organisational capacity, making a joined-up strategy essential.
Individually, each priority is significant. Together, they represent one of the most complex delivery periods the sector has ever faced. The only way forward, in my view, is to adopt a more joined-up view of regeneration, retrofit, building safety and asset management – and that will require a cross-supply chain effort.
At Durkan Regen, we see our role as helping providers translate regulatory requirements into practical, deliverable programmes.
By bringing together regeneration expertise, technical insight, resident engagement experience and experience of working in occupied homes, we believe there’s a real opportunity for us to help shape plans early, test assumptions and ideas, and support delivery from strategy through to completion.
But what does a genuinely strategic approach to asset management and delivery look like? Here are what I believe are the foundations the sector must put in place now if it’s to deliver what’s needed, and more, by the 2035 deadline.
A standard built around prevention
It’s tempting to view the Decent Homes Standard primarily as a compliance framework. At its heart, however, it’s about prevention and a greater focus on residents.
Specific requirements for damp and mould reflect a wider move away from reactive and emergency repairs to a drive to identify issues earlier, understand their causes and intervene before they escalate.
This requires more than ring-fenced programmes of regeneration and retrofit activity. Instead, it needs a long-term view of how each asset should perform and the investment it will require over the next 10, 20 or 30 years. The coming decade must be used to improve stock information and data, understand risks and opportunities and plan proactively.
For delivery partners, prevention means looking beyond the immediate work package. Site insight, technical assessments and lessons from completed schemes can reveal important learnings and help providers coordinate work in homes. This reduces the risk of investing in measures that deal with problems reactively, rather than improving the home’s long-term performance.
Plan through the lens of residents’ experiences
Housing challenges – whether repair work, building safety, damp and mould, or effective resident engagement – are still too often managed through separate teams, budgets and procurement exercises.
But of course, residents do not experience separate workstreams. Rather, they experience one home. Siloed planning and investment can subject households to repeated surveys and works, and duplicate costs. This is disruptive and doesn’t represent the best whole-life value.
A whole-house approach considers the property, resident, community and wider estate together. It uses planned programmes to improve energy performance, decency and building safety while creating a better living environment. In other words, it’s far more likely to deliver safe, warm, decent homes that are fit for the future.
In practice, that requires careful coordination around the resident. Regeneration contractors such as Durkan Regen can sequence workstreams, integrate specialist trades and manage the interfaces between programmes. Each visit then becomes an opportunity to resolve more issues, reduce repeat disruption and achieve better value from surveys, access arrangements, construction work and resident liaison.
Don’t let funding dictate the strategy
Financial constraints remain a real challenge. Often, funding pots are aimed at different outcomes, are on different timetables and the responsibility of different teams, unintentionally reinforcing siloed thinking. But funding should enable a strategy, not dictate it as is often the case.
In an ideal world, local authorities and housing associations would be in a position to look beyond annual budgets. The starting point should be a long-term view of what homes and neighbourhoods need. Grants and finance can then support that plan, rather than shape it.
Aligning asset management, sustainability, finance, development and resident-facing teams can help providers pursue several objectives through one investment process and make better-informed choices.
This also creates greater flexibility when funding opportunities emerge. Providers with clear priorities, dependable data and an agreed pipeline can move quickly without allowing a short bidding window to distort the wider programme.
The result should be investment decisions that reinforce one another, rather than inefficient or disconnected workstreams and projects.
Make the strategy deliverable
But, of course, a joined-up strategy is only valuable if it can be delivered. Procurement therefore has a crucial role to play.
In our experience, specialist contractors are too often engaged after design, sequencing, cost and programmes have been fixed. By then, opportunities to improve buildability, identify risks and reduce disruption may have been lost, leading to delays, redesign and additional costs.
Earlier engagement allows providers, consultants and contractors to test solutions while there is scope to shape them. Durkan Regen can bring practical insight on buildability, resident liaison, logistics, products, sequencing and whole-life cost, helping teams create affordable, deliverable and resident-focused programmes.
Procurement must therefore look beyond the lowest price. Quality, competence, collaboration and long-term value all really matter too.
Early contractor involvement can help develop and design specifications that reflect conditions on the ground, consider whether products are readily available and how works can be phased across occupied homes. It can also manage pressures on skills, access, and supply chains before they impact the programme. These practical considerations are essential in turning a sound strategy into a realistic delivery plan.
Know where you stand today
Perhaps the most important question, therefore, is not where housing providers must be in 2035. It is where they are now.
As I’ve said, the standard is as much an asset management challenge as a compliance challenge. Providers cannot prioritise investment without reliable information that is available and shared across their organisations.
But gathering that data can be difficult. Providers need strong communication, trusted resident-facing teams and coordinated surveys so residents are not repeatedly asked for the same information.
Good information should connect energy performance, repair history, safety risk and feedback from residents. Used carefully, AI can also help providers analyse these sources together, identify vulnerable households, reveal patterns across an estate and distinguish isolated defects from systemic problems. It should support professional judgement, not replace it.
Together, these insights give providers a clearer basis for explaining priorities and measuring whether investment is delivering the intended outcomes.
Data is only part of the picture. Residents bring essential insight into how homes and neighbourhoods function, helping ensure solutions are technically sound and grounded in their own experience living in the home.
Engagement must continue through delivery, with clear information about what will happen, when and why. A whole-house approach should reduce repeated disruption as well as improve programme efficiency.
Starting now does not mean rushing into another programme of work. It means building the evidence, relationships, procurement approach and delivery model required to make confident decisions.
Use the decade, do not wait for the deadline
Above all, programmes must be prioritised, budgets managed and carefully balanced against priorities. Every decision depends on understanding the starting point and having a coherent long-term plan.
Using the decade well means developing a credible pipeline now, including improving stock knowledge, agreeing priorities, engaging residents and the supply chain, and testing delivery models at a manageable scale.
This preparation will allow providers to build capacity and learn from early programmes, rather than face a last-minute rush as 2035 approaches.
Compliance must be the baseline, not the ambition. The greater opportunity is to create healthier, safer and more resilient homes through programmes that deliver more value with less disruption.
Early engagement with experienced partners will turn ambitious strategies into successful programmes. Durkan Regen supports providers with delivery insight during planning and procurement, coordination of complex regeneration and retrofit works, resident and supply-chain engagement, and safe delivery in occupied homes.
By 2035, success should not be measured only by whether homes meet the standard. It should also be visible in the quality of residents’ experience, how communities grow and thrive, and the sector’s ability to move from repeated reaction to planned and preventative regeneration.
