If you need more information please contact the private sector housing team:
Telephone: 01638 719233

The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), which replaces the housing fitness standard, came into effect on 6 April 2006.  It is a new method of assessing whether homes are healthy and safe. 29 different hazards can be assessed using the system in order to determine how significant the risk of injury or ill health is.  The HHSRS enables local authority officers to calculate a hazard score where significant problems are encountered, including hard to heat homes, dangerous staircases, fire and electrical hazards and poor security.  The full list is as follows: 

• Damp/Mould growth
• Excess heat/cold (2)
• Asbestos
• Biocides
• Carbon Monoxide
• Lead
• Radiation
• Uncombusted fuel gas
• VOC's
• Crowding and Space
• Entry by Intruders
• Lighting
• Noise
• Hygiene (2)
• Food Safety
• Water Supply
• Falls (4)
• Electrical hazards
• Fire
• Hot surfaces and materials
• Collision and Entrapment
• Explosions
• Ergonomics
• Structural collapse

The system enables property owners, managers and regulators to make informed decisions about what improvements need to be made.  A brief guide to the HHSRS has been published by the Asset and Skills Council and you can access it from here.

Where an officer from the Council assesses a property using the HHSRS all significant hazards found will be scored to determine whether they are classed as category 1 or category 2 hazards. 

For any category 1 hazards identified, the Council will be under a duty to consider using one of a range of enforcement options to ensure that the hazard is reduced to an acceptable level.  This may be a notice requiring improvements or a notice that simply draws the owners attention to the problem, or it may take the form of a prohibition order that restricts use of a property in a way that reduces the hazard to an acceptable level.  Where there is an imminent risk the Council can take emergency action to get improvement works completed quickly or prohibit certain use with immediate effect.

Where category 2 hazards exist the Council has a power to use some of these enforcement options.  The Council has an enforcement policy and Policy Guide on the Regulation of Housing Standards that sets out the full use of these powers in accordance with the principles of better regulation and in line with the Government Regulators' Code of Practice.