House Condition Surveys - Commissioning, Evaluation & Auditing

BRE Housing team offers help with commissioning Private Sector House Condition Surveys and auditing of housing stock surveys in both the Private and Public sector.

We draw on our experience gained over the last 20 years in Local and continuous National House Condition Surveys - English Housing Survey (EHS),  (LIW) and Northern Ireland House Condition Survey (NIHCS)

Commissioning & Evaluation

House Condition Surveys are normally completed by the Local Authority, the Registered Social Landlord, or their specialist contractors.   Where we can add value is in taking the worry out of commissioning high quality and cost-effective surveys.  Additionally, when the survey is complete, we offer skilled evaluation and appraisal of the results.

Many authorities find our Housing Stock Modelling Service useful in providing a local prediction of the condition of their stock.  This information can be used to derive a bespoke sample survey design.

The service offers a menu of practical help allowing authorities to pick the relevant parts required:

  • Provision of a draft advertisement
  • Technical specification
  • Appraisal of tenders
  • Assistance with judging technical methodology during interview
  • Advice on sample requirements
  • Prepare sample design using our Housing Stock Modelling Service
  • Draw the sample
  • Train and support staff to monitor surveys
  • Evaluate the final report for consistency

Strategy and Policy advice

We can advise on development of Housing and Regeneration Strategy or Policy, when required.

Audit

We also audit stock surveys for compliance with Housing Health & Safety Rating System (HHSRS) for both the Private and Public sector. This involves analysis of survey methodology including resurvey where appropriate. The benefit is to ensure consistency, quality and accuracy of methods and results, providing peace of mind, and due preparation for a visit from the Housing Inspectorate. All public sector landlords are required to accurately estimate the number of non decent homes and to make them ‘Decent' by 2010, this requires that no dwelling should have a Category 1 hazard. Recent projects include an audit for a large Cambridgeshire authority of their own stock of around 7500 dwellings.

Development work

Viv Mason,BRE Principal Consultant  co ordinated and carried out the majority of research contributing to the "Good housing leads to Good health" toolkit commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). The calculator developed as part of this toolkit is downloadable from the CIEH website via this link. It helps to estimate the costs to public health of poor housing.

Further work is being carried out which will result in BRE being able to estimate  the health costs associated with Category 1 hazards in local authorities areas.

Contact our Principal Consultant, Viv Mason via masonv@bre.co.uk to enquire further about these services.