From November 2025, social landlords in England (both private registered providers of social housing and local authorities) will be subject to new requirements for electrical safety inspections. 

These new requirements have been long anticipated and move the expectations regarding inspections from best practice to law, aligning standards with the private rented sector.

Current requirements

Social landlords are not currently legally required to carry out regular electrical safety inspections in the same way as private landlords. While many social landlords already conduct electrical installation inspections every five years in line with best practice expectations, there has been no statutory obligation to do so.

In contrast, under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, private landlords have, since June 2020, been required to ensure electrical installations are inspected and tested at least every five years by a qualified person and provide copies of any certificates to tenants.

What’s changing?

Following a strong response to a government consultation, where 97% of respondents supported mandatory installation checks, new electrical safety regulations for social housing were laid before Parliament in June 2025, and will require:

• Electrical installation inspections at least every five years for all social rented homes.
• Mandatory testing of electrical appliances provided by the landlord as part of the tenancy.
• Issuance of an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) to tenants within 28 days of inspection or before a new tenancy begins. 

The Government has stated that they will bring these changes forward in November 2025 for new tenancies and May 2026 for existing tenancies.

Implications for social landlords

To ensure compliance with the regulations once in force, social landlords will need to take a proactive and structured approach to electrical safety. Key actions include:

• Policy and procedure review: Existing compliance policies should be reviewed and updated to reflect the new legal requirements. This includes ensuring that inspection cycles are clearly defined and in line with legislation. Landlords will also need to review their access policies and procedures to make sure that these cover electrical inspections. Whilst previously landlords could have missed scheduled dates for electrical inspections or adopted increased flexibility, this is no longer an option – missing a due electrical inspection will be a breach of legislation. 
• Budgeting and resource planning: Landlords must allocate sufficient resources for regular electrical inspections, appliance testing, and any necessary remedial works. Where contractors will be used to complete inspections, landlords must ensure any contractual agreements, processes and oversight mechanisms are reviewed and sufficient to ensure compliance. It would be sensible for landlords to speak to contractors to ensure they are aware of the requirements under the new regulations. 
• Record-keeping systems: It is essential to assess whether current systems for documenting inspections, test results and follow-up actions are fit for purpose. Records should be auditable, with clear timescales for completing any remedial work. Currently, there is no tenant satisfaction measure specifically relating to electrical installation inspections – we wait to see whether this will change as the new regulations come into force. 
• Tenant communication: Clear and timely communication with tenants is vital, particularly regarding access arrangements and safety procedures. Landlords should also consider how tenant vulnerabilities, such as age, disability or language barriers, might affect access or the scheduling of works, and make reasonable adjustments where necessary.

Next steps for providers

Whilst the changes to the requirements for electrical inspections have long been expected and broadly represent what was already best practice, they will come into force at a time when social landlords are also having to deal with a raft of other significant changes, most notably the implementation of Awaab’s law (learn more here). Handling all of these changes will be challenging and therefore, we would suggest that providers take the opportunity at an early stage to ensure they are prepared and ready to comply with the electrical safety requirements once in force.  A failure to comply could result in a number of legal and regulatory risks. 

For more information

If you would like support for any of the areas discussed above or would like to discuss further how the regulatory team can help you, please contact us.