Catch Up: Key Insights from Our First Client Insight Session

Sureserve's first Client Insight Session brought together more than 50 housing professionals from across social housing providers, suppliers and manufacturers to look at two priorities currently shaping the sector: proactive stock condition monitoring and preparation for Awaab's Law Phase 2, which comes into force on 30 November 2026. 

Healthy Homes Check: where it fits and why it works 

Andrew Tod, Head of Energy Transformation at Sureserve, opened the session with an overview of the Healthy Homes Check, an enhanced compliance driven property survey built to run alongside a routine gas safety or heating system maintenance visit rather than as a separate appointment. The check covers up to eight areas, including door and window security, kitchen and bathroom condition against the Decent Homes Standard, ventilation, CO and smoke alarms, damp and mould, and fire door condition, with critical issues flagged to housing providers immediately and non-critical findings logged as part of an ongoing audit trail. 

Andrew illustrated the model with two live examples. At Poplar Harca, whose 10,000 London properties helped shape the Healthy Homes Check during its development, the rollout now combines seven additional safety checks into a single scheduled appointment, meaning residents book one visit instead of three or four, and every property receives at least one fire door inspection a year. A second, currently confidential pilot covering 400 homes is pairing in person checks with environmental sensors to target underperforming ventilation, with the aim of cutting intervention time on flagged issues from around 12 weeks down to two. Data shared from that pilot's tier one contractors made the case for early action starkly: a mould wash in week one can cost around £400, but the same issue left to week six causes plaster degradation costing around £1,800, rising to roughly £3,200 for ceiling replacement by week ten. 

Awaab's Law: one year on, and what Phase 2 changes 

Andrew also set out where Awaab's Law stands a year after Phase 1 and what Phase 2 will require. As a reminder, the statutory clock starts at the point of awareness, whether from a resident report or an operative observation. Emergency hazards require investigation within 24 hours, significant hazards (damp and mould under Phase 1) within 10 working days, remedial works must start within five working days of an investigation concluding, and a written summary of findings is owed to the tenant within three working days, with a 12 week long stop where full remediation isn't otherwise possible. 

Drawing on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's year one research, Andrew noted a genuine shift in landlord behaviour toward prioritising serious hazards, but also persistent friction: damp and mould cases often run past the 10 day window given the complexity of diagnosis, funding pressure on planned maintenance is a recurring landlord concern, and resident awareness remains low, with satisfaction hinging more on clear communication and visible progress than strict adherence to the legal timescales. Written inspection summaries in particular are inconsistently issued and residents are often unaware they're entitled to one, a gap Andrew flagged as one to close ahead of Phase 2. 

Phase 2 significantly widens the scope of reportable hazards beyond damp and mould to include extreme cold and excess heat, falls, structural collapse and explosion, fire and electrical hazards, and domestic and personal hygiene and food safety, alongside updated guidance that now includes written summary templates. Sureserve's advice to providers preparing for the change centred on consistent tenant communication, getting ahead of chronic no access properties, robust and consistent record keeping and data collection across contractors, Awaab's Law aligned triage (Sureserve has already rebuilt its own call centre scripts around this), stronger contract management, better use of asset data to flag issues early, and up to date identification of vulnerable residents. 

On the recurring challenge of no access highlighted by a session attendee, Andrew was candid that Sureserve holds a legal right of access as a fallback, but leans first on early communication, flexible appointment scheduling, and bundling Healthy Homes Checks into gas safety visits residents are already inclined to open the door for. Kevin Harmen, Sureserve’s Communications Marketing Manager and host of the session, added that Sureserve is also exploring channels like WhatsApp alongside traditional letters to improve engagement with residents who may otherwise miss or ignore correspondence. 

EndoTherm: efficiency as a social value lever 

The second half of the session turned to EndoTherm, introduced by guest speaker Tahir Ali, Partnerships Manager at the Energy Innovation Agency, alongside Jay Ham, Sureserve's Head of ESG. EndoTherm is a naturally derived boiler additive, fully tested and indemnified by major boiler manufacturers, that alters the molecular behaviour of water moving through pipework so it fills microscopic surface imperfections rather than flowing around them. The result is a larger effective heat transfer surface, allowing boilers to reach temperature and switch off faster, delivering an average 15% improvement in boiler efficiency over a lifespan of at least ten years. 

Sureserve is offering the product free to install through its network. In a paid deployment with The Guinness Partnership ahead of the free scheme, EndoTherm delivered an annual bill saving of £140 to £170 per property and was found to narrow the fuel poverty gap for tenants by around 40%, alongside a meaningful reduction in scope 1 to 3 emissions. The full case study is available here. 

Tahir also confirmed that the Energy Innovation Agency has now formally signed on as an innovation partner to Sureserve, with a solar battery offering for social housing nearing completion.

Key takeaways 

Proactive property checks support earlier identification of concerns, and combining them with existing scheduled visits, as demonstrated at Poplar Harca, reduces disruption for residents while widening compliance coverage. 

Awaab's Law Phase 2 extends compliance obligations well beyond damp and mould, and the fixed statutory timescales make consistent record keeping, triage and communication the areas providers are most exposed on. 

Acting early on issues like ventilation and moisture is materially cheaper than deferring, and heating innovations such as EndoTherm can deliver efficiency, bill savings and social value in parallel with compliance work. 

We would like to thank Tahir Ali, Andrew Tod, Jay Ham, and everyone who joined us for this first session. We look forward to bringing further Client Insight Sessions in the near future. 

Missed the session, or want to revisit it?

Visit the Healthy Homes Resource Hub