From 23rd June 2026, a revised version of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) will come into force.
If you’ve never heard of HHSRS before, don’t worry — many landlords haven’t.
Yet it’s one of the most important tools local authorities use when deciding whether a property presents a risk to the health or safety of its occupants, and whether enforcement action may be required.
The changes won’t introduce new hazards that landlords suddenly need to worry about. Instead, they are designed to make the system easier to understand, easier to apply consistently and easier for councils to enforce.
What Is HHSRS?
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System was introduced in 2006 as a risk assessment framework for residential property.
When assessing a property, councils use HHSRS to consider:
- The likelihood of harm occurring
- The potential severity of that harm
Where a serious hazard is identified, the local authority may be required to take enforcement action. Less serious hazards can still result in intervention where the council considers it appropriate.
The system also plays an important role in determining whether a property is considered suitable for occupation under wider housing legislation.
Why Is It Being Updated?
For many years, HHSRS has been criticised for being overly complicated.
The scoring system was difficult for landlords to understand, difficult for tenants to interpret and often challenging to explain in practice.
The government’s aim is to simplify the framework while maintaining the same core purpose: identifying and addressing hazards within residential property.
What’s Changing?
The most noticeable change is that the number of hazard categories will reduce from 29 to 21.
Several existing hazards have been grouped together under broader headings, creating a framework that is easier to understand and apply.
Examples include:
- Indoor air pollutants
- Domestic hygiene
- Falls on the level
- Fire and explosions
- Collisions, entrapment and ergonomics
The revised hazards are also grouped into broader themes including:
- Protection against accidents
- Physiological requirements
- Protection against infection
- Psychological requirements
Simpler Hazard Ratings
The existing A-J hazard bands will disappear.
Instead, hazards will be classified as:
- High
- Medium
- Low
This should make it much easier for landlords, tenants and agents to understand the seriousness of an identified hazard without needing to interpret a complex scoring matrix.
Similarly, the existing harm classifications will be renamed:
- Extreme
- Severe
- Serious
- Moderate
Again, the purpose is clarity rather than a fundamental change in how risks are assessed.
Fire Hazards Will Be Considered More Broadly
The revised framework also expands the definition of fire-related hazards.
Assessments will consider not only the risk of fire itself, but also associated smoke and fumes, explosions and structural collapse resulting from fire or explosion.
Enforcement Powers
One area landlords should pay particular attention to is enforcement.
Where a local authority identifies a high-level hazard and has already taken enforcement action, it may have the power to impose a financial penalty of up to £7,000 if it believes it would have been reasonably practicable for the responsible person to remove the hazard or comply with the relevant requirement.
As always, the detail matters.
But the wider message is clear: councils are being given a simpler framework to assess properties and justify enforcement decisions.
The Importance of Regular Property Inspections
One lesson we repeatedly see in practice is that issues don’t always get reported.
Even when tenants are encouraged to report maintenance concerns promptly, some hazards only become apparent during a physical inspection of the property.
At the same time, landlords must balance this against a tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment of their home. Excessive inspections can create their own problems.
In our experience, the sweet spot is usually a property inspection every six to nine months.
A well-conducted inspection isn’t just about maintenance. It provides an opportunity to identify potential risks, check compliance obligations and address issues before they become larger problems.
Final Thoughts
The HHSRS changes coming into force on 23rd June are unlikely to transform day-to-day property management overnight.
What they will do is make housing standards easier to assess, easier to explain and potentially easier for councils to enforce.
For professional landlords, the key takeaway remains unchanged:
Good compliance starts long before a council inspector arrives.
Regular inspections, good record keeping and proactive management remain the most effective way to reduce risk and protect both your tenants and your investment.