14 Round Table Review RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INDUSTRY & GOVERNMENT
• Andrew Cameron-Smith, Healthy Homes Hub: I think in comparison to how we open this, we desperately need a clear standard, developed in collaboration and partnership between sector and the suppliers.
• Chinyere Onyeka, Peabody: The Government has looked at funding realistically, because as much as they’re implementing new ones and implementing changes, something gets left on the back burner; forget ‘decent homes’ and and looking at what must be done right; fi rst time fi xes.
• Fayann Simpson, L&Q Group: It comes back to people; talking about those benefi ts, and how your products are experienced in the home.
• Charlene Nevins, Peabody: We’re missing a trick by not including fl ooring in retrofi t programmes, and including the health value.
• Chris Roberts, Beaufl or: Maintain consistency across housing policy, and solid guidelines on the whole life cost of a fl oor, so we’re all singing from the same hymn sheets.
INVESTIGATING HEALTH IMPACTS Charlene Nevins and Andrew Cameron-Smith of Healthy Homes Hub discuss the key impacts on health and wellbeing of fl ooring in homes
Social housing delegates expressed their own frustrations that they “couldn’t do more” in certain scenarios, where fl ooring was acutely inadequate, or even missing. Doing it “case by case” would be “unfair” if it prioritised some cases over others, said Fayann Simpson. Steven from Beaufl or said this supported the idea for a standard “being
Government-led, to become the norm, otherwise it’s going to be reactive.” Delegates including Fayann Simpson said that a “one-size fi ts all” approach for standard fl ooring would be appropriate, apart from where there are accessibility and adaptability issues.
ENGAGING WITH TENANTS & GOVERNMENT Chinyere Onyeka-Joseph of Peabody stressed the importance of “getting the tenants’ perspective on fl ooring,” but that “we need to fi nd a healthy balance,” and acknowledgement that providers are required to consult tenants on wide range of factors currently around properties, including the upcoming second phase of Awaab’s Law. She said that damp and mould was “overthrowing everything else; so it’s really hard to formulate a standard for fl ooring when you don’t even know if you’ll have a budget for it.” Andy Cameron-Smith nailed the problem around explicit regimes such as
Awaab’s Law, versus more amorphous goals around fl ooring – “nobody knows what that defi nition [of quality] is; Awaab’s Law tells you what you need to do. Because the sector is very compliance-driven, fl ooring is always going to struggle to have its voice heard.” Fayann said that with a new Government administration, there was an
opportunity for the sector to ‘‘refl ect the insight back to government, and I think we really need to think about how to be more eff ective in that sphere, including around employment and skills.” Chris Roberts warned that “until those regulations or guidelines are in place from Government, specifying quality will be “so diffi cult, and you will be losing money as an industry; people will be taking advantage.”
REUSE & RECYCLING As well as attempting to shiſt the stigma of sheet PVC fl ooring from ‘poor quality’ to more of an ‘aspirational’ off er, based on proven characteristics, Beaufl or is leaning into the potential for social housing providers to reuse fl ooring, with potentially huge sustainability savings. T is “second use”
• Steven Mcauliff e, Beaufl or: We have a product that does exactly what it needs to do to fulfi l the problems we are experiencing, but it needs to be led from government as a minimum standard.
approach, said Chris Roberts, meant moving away from the default setting of “just ripping up a fl oor and throwing it into landfi ll, to a diff erent mentality,” and this was a “big part of the company’s vision, going forward.” Fayann Simpson said that contractors “prefer to rip it out – most of the time
I’ve gone in there and it just needs a clean; nine times out of 10, it’ll be just fi ne. We have a very wasteful society.”
CONCLUSION Chair Matt Baird said that the sector “had become a place which does what it has to, while there are many examples of people going over and above.” He said that providers had “for a long time been told that fl ooring is a nice to have, it’s optional.” He added there were related issues around funding alternative accommodation while fl ooring was being installed, and also “are they going to look aſt er their homes,” alluding to the trust needed from providers into tenants looking aſt er fl ooring. Our cross-disciplinary round table, however, provided ample evidence
around why fl ooring has to be given greater priority in future. Andrew Cameron-Smith of the Healthy Homes Hub, brought the focus fi rmly back to residents, and the fact that fl ooring was overlooked by providers for its wide- ranging impact. He said that ‘Decent’ wasn’t a high enough aspiration, but also that what it meant in practice was not clear. Conversely, he said “when you have rigorous standards, it pulls the market up.” He said that fl ooring was a key part of the “jigsaw” of a healthy, comfortable
and effi cient environment, but a shiſt ing context politically meant that it was diffi cult to complete: “We have all the pieces, we just don’t have the picture on the box, because the agenda changes and we get dragged off onto something else.” Cameron-Smith concluded that the answer, although challenging to achieve was that “the resident needs to be the codesigner of the solution.” T e big takeaway from the session was that despite the universally
acknowledged importance of fl ooring, with a host of other compliance requirements recently imposed on social housing teams, it is going to struggle to be at the top of the list of priorities. Improving the situation for tenants is going to rely, short term at least, on the concerted eff orts of enlightened providers, and manufacturers such as Beaufl or, working together to improve understanding and unlock investment.
Housing Management & Maintenance Autumn 2026
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