But housing safety is becoming a year-round challenge.
As hotter summers become more common, landlords and property professionals increasingly need to think about both sides of thermal comfort. Can a property stay warm enough in winter, but also remain safe and comfortable during periods of extreme heat?
That question is becoming more important following changes to the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), which came into force on 23rd June 2026.
And the latest housing data shows just how significant the wider thermal comfort challenge already is.
There has been progress. The number of non-decent private rented homes has fallen by 16.5% over the last decade.
Even so, almost 1.1 million private rental properties were still classed as non-decent in 2024.
These figures do not mean that 441,000 homes have an Excess Heat hazard under HHSRS. The two assessments are different. But they do highlight the scale of temperature-related housing quality issues already facing the sector.
And those issues are no longer limited to winter.
The framework has reduced the number of hazard categories from 29 to 21 and replaced the previous A-J rating bands with simpler High, Medium and Low risk classifications.
New baseline indicators have also been introduced to help identify potential deficiencies before a full assessment takes place.
Importantly, the updated framework includes both Excess Cold and Excess Heat within its Physiological Requirements hazard group.
Excess Cold is hardly a new consideration for landlords and property professionals. Excess Heat, however, is likely to receive much more attention as periods of extreme summer temperatures become increasingly difficult to ignore.
That means a property can perform perfectly well for much of the year, but become uncomfortable or potentially unsafe when temperatures rise.
This is where the conversation around property safety needs to evolve.
Good housing standards are not simply about passing an inspection or responding when something goes wrong. They are about understanding how a home actually performs for the people living in it throughout the year.
As Sián Hemming-Metcalfe, Operations Director at Inventory Base, explains:
"For many years, conversations around housing quality have rightly focused on keeping homes warm, dry and energy efficient during the winter months. But as the UK's climate changes, property professionals are increasingly having to consider how homes perform during periods of extreme summer heat as well."
Rather than waiting for a resident complaint or an obvious problem, landlords, agents and property managers can use inspections to build a clearer picture of how a property is performing.
That could mean paying closer attention to ventilation, window coverings, sources of significant solar gain and other property characteristics that could contribute to uncomfortable indoor temperatures.
It also means keeping reliable records.
Clear inspection histories, photographs, notes and follow-up actions make it easier to identify changes in a property's condition, demonstrate what has been checked and make informed decisions when further investigation is needed.
The goal is not to turn every property professional into a thermal comfort expert, but to make potential risks easier to spot, record and act on before they become bigger problems.
That gives teams better visibility across properties and portfolios while helping them demonstrate what was inspected, when it was inspected and what happened next.
As expectations around housing quality continue to evolve, having reliable evidence becomes increasingly important. Not simply for compliance, but for making better decisions and providing safer, better managed homes.
The revised HHSRS is a useful reminder that housing safety does not stop when winter ends.
A safe home needs to work in January and July. And as hotter summers put more pressure on the UK's housing stock, thermal comfort is likely to become a much bigger part of the property safety conversation.
For property professionals, the opportunity is to get ahead of that shift now by making inspections more consistent, evidence more accessible and potential risks easier to identify. And if thermal comfort is not yet high on your priority list, it is worth remembering for when you next review your inspection and property safety processes.
Sources
For further information about the data or sources referenced in this article, please contact marketing@inventorybase.com.
