HHSRS

Calculating HHSRS scores - use this calculator

Fitness for Habitation / Housing Health and Safety Rating System
In 1998, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) commissioned the development of a new Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) to replace the current Housing Fitness Standard. This will come into force in 2005 and is seen as a more robust approach for setting and achieving minimum requirements for housing.

The principle behind the Housing Health and Safety Rating System is that a dwelling should provide a safe and healthy living environment for both the occupants and any visitors. The new framework involves an evidence-based risk assessment process which will form the basis of enforcement decisions made by Local Authorities. The survey procedure is intended to be logical, straightforward and practical.

To uphold the health and safety of tenants, the HHSRS insists that:

• A dwelling should be free from unnecessary and avoidable hazards;

and

• Where hazards are necessary or unavoidable, they should be made as safe as reasonably possible.

Faults that Lead to Hazards

The key driver of the HHSRS is the identification and rating of hazards that arise from faults. For the purposes of the HHSRS, a fault is a “failure of an element to meet the ‘Ideal’, whether that failure is inherent, such as a result of the original construction or manufacture, or a result of deterioration or a want of repair or maintenance”.

The Ideal is the “currently perceived model for an element (i.e. component or constituent part, facility or amenity of a dwelling, such as a wall, a window, a staircase, a bath, means of lighting, and means of space heating) which defines the functions and safest performance criteria that can be expected of that element.”

In essence, the HHSRS is fully committed to safe-guarding tenants against likely harm and risk. Faults are translated into hazards and the extent of the potential harm is weighted to provide a hazard score. The greater the hazard score, the more immediate and severe the action required by the Local Authority. The Ideal is a benchmark for the Good Practice that should ensure the tenants enjoy a comfortable living environment.

Assessment

The hazard assessment is based upon a person / group deemed to be most vulnerable and not the current occupiers. The implication of this is that while a property may appear safe for a healthy 30 year old, it may not be considered so for a young child or elderly resident.

Faults are judged by a surveyor to see if they give rise to any of the 24 hazards. Each hazard is scored on (See Table 2):

• Probability of hazard occurring within 12 month period (ratio 1 in 10)

• The likely outcome in terms of harm if it did occur (Class I – IV with I most severe)

• Spread of outcomes (% weighting of all harms occurring)

• 10 bands of hazard scores ranging from A = 5000+ to J = 9 or less

• A hazard with a score of greater than 1000 (A-C), requires immediate intervention.
  

The Enforcement Framework

The local authority has a duty or power to act if a hazard above or below a threshold score to be prescribed by Regulations (Category I and Category II hazards) exists. Where they intend to act, authorities can use their own judgement as to the most appropriate means of dealing with the hazard. The options include:

• Improvement notices requiring owners to carry out remedial action

• Prohibition orders to close all or part of a building

• Pemolition

• Clearance

• Immediate remedial action by Local Authority

• Immediate prohibition of occupation 

The Government has committed £4-5m to meet the HHSRS start-up costs of local authorities, including training. The introduction of the HHSRS will see non-decent homes increase by 450,000 and 100,000 of which will be targeted for support through Decent Homes funding (40,000 social housing and 60,000 vulnerable private households). The Government does not consider that the change from the fitness to freedom from serious hazards as the first of the Decent Homes criterion will have a material effect upon the delivery of the programme (Government Response to the ODPM: Housing , Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee’s Report on Decent Homes, July 2004).