The Government has announced that Phase 2 of Awaab’s Law will come into force on 30 November 2026, extending the strict response requirements beyond damp and mould to a wider range of serious housing hazards. The changes are expected to impact around 4 million social housing tenants and place additional legal duties on social landlords. 

What is changing?

Since October 2025, social landlords have been required to respond to dangerous damp and mould within prescribed timescales. From 30 November 2026, those requirements will also apply to seven additional hazard categories: 

• Electrical hazards
• Falls and trip risks
• Fire and explosion risks
• Excess cold
• Excess heat
• Structural collapse and falling elements
• Domestic hygiene issues, including pest infestations 

For hazards presenting an immediate danger, landlords will be required to investigate and make the property safe within 24 hours.

Where issues are serious but not immediately dangerous, landlords must: 

• Investigate within 10 working days
• Provide a written summary within 3 working days
• Complete urgent safety work within 5 working days of the investigation
• Commence longer-term repairs within 12 weeks 

The Government has also confirmed that Phase 3, expected in 2027, will extend these requirements to all remaining Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards with the exception of overcrowding.

Why this matters

This is more than a compliance change. It represents a continued shift towards a proactive, tenant-focused regulatory environment, where landlords will increasingly be judged on the speed, quality and transparency of their response to health and safety concerns. 

The updated HHSRS and the continued rollout of Awaab’s Law mean regulators, tenants and complaint bodies will have clearer benchmarks against which landlord performance can be assessed. 

Key takeaways

1. Review repairs and triage processes now

Current reporting and repair workflows should be tested against the new statutory timescales.

Consider:

• Can emergency hazards be identified and escalated within hours?
• Are contractors able to meet the new response periods?
• Is there sufficient out-of-hours capacity?

2. Strengthen record keeping

The requirement to provide written summaries and demonstrate timely action will increase the importance of:

• Accurate inspection records
• Resident communications
• Repair audit trails
• Contractor performance monitoring

3. Prepare for Phase 3

Although the immediate focus is on the seven new hazards, landlords should already be mapping compliance risks across the wider HHSRS framework ahead of the final implementation phase.

4. Potential rise in complaints and enforcement activity

Greater tenant awareness of statutory rights may lead to:

• Increased complaints
• Housing Ombudsman referrals
• Greater expectations around transparency and responsiveness

The bigger message

The direction of travel is clear: tenant safety, early intervention and measurable accountability are becoming central pillars of the social housing regulatory framework.

For housing providers and local authorities alike, the challenge is no longer simply fixing hazards when they arise,  it is creating systems that identify risks earlier, respond faster and provide clear evidence that residents are being listened to and protected. 

How confident are you that your current repairs, compliance and resident engagement processes could meet Awaab's Law timescales across all of these new hazard categories? For further infomation and support, please contact me.