26 Feb 2026
News
RHE Global
The latest updates and insights from RIAMS Chief Editor Jeremy Manners.
Welcome to February’s edition of RIAMS unpacked. Things have been heating up this week at RHE Global as we put the final preparations in place for RHE Housing 2026. Our first in-person conference for a while will see us in Birmingham on 25 March, hosting a day dedicated to the future of housing standards and legal reform. The event promises invaluable insights and practical guidance from leading voices in the sector.
I’ve even taken to video this time around, to talk about the Housing Roundtable LIVE that we will hold on the day, with fantastic panellists lined up. You can shape the conversation now by submitting your questions for the panel in advance.
Sign up to RHE Housing 2025 now while tickets are still available.
Still on the subject of housing, I’m also proud to announce that over 760 people have viewed our free e-learning course Navigating Awaab’s Law: Guidance for Social Landlords. It provides a useful insight into the provisions of the law and is available to work through at your leisure.
Unpacking this month’s developments, there are some newsworthy items and a variety of policy and legal updates. We also take a closer look at our powers of entry procedure and divulge the Question of the Month from Dr Tim Everett – so keep reading for your monthly update on all things environmental health.
In the news
Wyre Council has advised the public not to eat eggs or egg-laying poultry produced domestically near an industrial site in the Hillhouse Technology Enterprise Zone in Lancashire. The Food Standards Agency has issued precautionary advice that people should not consume home-produced eggs or allow birds kept for egg laying within 1 km of the site to enter the food chain, due to elevated levels of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) thought to have arisen from historic contamination from manufacturing at the former ICI site. And in the same week, the UK government published its PFAS Plan designed to understand sources of PFAS, reduce exposure and tackle pathways into the environment. Testing for PFAS will be increased, as will alignment with EU regulation by 2029. Northern Ireland is already subject to the EU’s approach to PFAS through the Windsor Framework and, along with the Welsh and Scottish governments, will look to collaborate with the UK government to ensure a consistent approach. The health impacts of PFAS have been widely publicised in the past, and concerns continue to grow about the health and environmental impacts. With this in mind, we have a private water supply course on PFAS on 18 June delivered by the incredibly popular David Clapham. David will cover what PFAS are, where they come from, the health risks they pose and how they affect water, along with practical considerations for officers. David also authored the RIAMS procedure PFAS: Contaminants of Interest in Private Water Supplies PHP95, which is a valuable tool for officers.
Clearsprings Ready Homes, one of the companies with a multi-billion-pound Home Office contract to provide housing for asylum seekers and a long-term nemesis to many a housing standards team, has paid financial penalties of £140,000 to Swindon Borough Council for multiple management regulation breaches (as reported by the BBC). With a reputation for being reluctant to accept responsibility, let’s hope the settlement of this latest case ushers in a revised approach from the behemoth organisation. Massive congratulations to Swindon BC.
Legal and regulatory insights
The promotion of high-fat, salt and sugar foods (HFSS) is being restricted in Wales. The Welsh regulations, the Food (Promotion and Presentation) (Wales) Regulations 2025, come into force on 26 March and restrict the promotion of HFSS products by volume price (e.g. multibuy offers), key locations in larger stores and free refills on certain drinks. The regulations apply to medium and large qualifying businesses with 50 or more employees. Enforcement is likely to be carried out by teams with food standards responsibilities, and offences carry fixed monetary penalties of £2,500. Take a look at the Welsh Government Implementation guidance. The England regulations, the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021, are largely mirrored by the Welsh regulations in content and resulted in the restriction of HFSS products by location coming into force on 1 October 2022 and the restriction of HFSS products by volume price being introduced on 1 October 2025, with transitional arrangements until 30 September 2026.
Awaab’s Law is coming to Wales and Scotland:
The Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) sets the minimum requirements to which social rented homes must meet and be maintained. Welsh ministers have announced that the WHQS is being updated to strengthen how social landlords respond to health and safety hazards, particularly damp and mould, in homes. The changes, which are similar to Awaab’s Law in England, will introduce clear mandatory timescales for investigating and remedying hazards. These changes follow concerns raised by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales about failures by some landlords to address damp and mould hazards adequately. The new requirements are designed to be proactive and person centred and to prioritise health and wellbeing over technical repairs, as well as increasing accountability and transparency for tenants. These new requirements, which will cover all HHSRS hazards from day one (with the exception of Crowding and Space), will come into force on 1 April 2026 for all social landlords.
The Scottish Government has introduced draft regulations, the Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026, due to come into force in October, imposing timeframes on both private and social landlords to investigate damp and mould and commence repairs. These regulations are expected to be the first stage of Awaab’s Law in Scotland, with further hazards expected to be including through future regulation.
Rental discrimination in Wales is to be banned from 1 June 2026. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (Commencement) (Wales) Order 2026 introduces sections 43–49 of the Renters’ Rights Act, prohibiting discriminatory practice in relation to children or the benefits status of proposed tenants. The prohibition applies to dwellings that are to be the subject of an occupation contract, on the basis that a child would or may live or visit the dwelling or that a person is in receipt of or may receive benefits.
Housing offences (sentencing guidelines consultation): The Sentencing Council is running a consultation until 9 April on a package of sentencing guidelines for housing-related offences, including unlawful evictions and harassment, HMO licensing offences and management regulation breaches, providing false or misleading information and failing to comply with an improvement notice, prohibition order or overcrowding notice. These are really interesting proposals that will fill a gaping hole in the guidelines and hopefully lead to more robust and consistent sentencing decisions. Senior Housing Consultant Liz Blend discusses the consultation and its implications here.
A draft version of the Assured Tenancies (Private Rented Sector) (Written Statement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026 has been published and is expected to come in (possibly with amendments) on 1 May 2026. Private landlords will need to issue a written statement of terms to their tenants before they sign a new tenancy agreement from 1 May onwards and issue all existing tenants with a government-produced information sheet by 31 May 2026. The government has released guidance on this and has committed to publishing the information sheet in March.
New funding has been announced in Northern Ireland to support low-income households with heating and insulation improvements through the Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme. The programme is expected to support a further thousand vulnerable households in the improvement of the energy efficiency of their homes.
Decent Homes Standard – consultation response and policy statement: The government has laid out its plans for a revised DHS to apply to both the private and social rented sectors in England from 2035. You can familiarise yourself with the details and the implications for housing teams on Communities, as well as the crossover with the new minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES).
A Warm Homes Plan for England and Wales has been published, along with a new consultation on Home Energy Model: Energy Performance Certificates, which is open until 18 March. The UK government has also provided consultation responses on the following:
The Warm Homes Plan is a £15 billion government initiative to upgrade millions of homes and reduce fuel poverty by 2030, with a focus on low-income and fuel-poor households, as well as supporting the retrofitting of green technologies such as solar and heat pumps. MEES will be raised to the equivalent of EPC C and the cost cap for landlords will be increased to £10,000. Solar panels will be required on all new homes, and there will be a further push to deliver more heat networks.
The Crime and Policing Bill is now at the report stage in the House of Lords. It is a wide-ranging bill that aims to tackle serious crime, ASB, violence against women and girls and knife and retail crime, while increasing police powers and strengthening public confidence. Notably, it will introduce ‘respect orders’ to tackle persistent ASB, along with new, specific criminal offences targeting retail worker assaults, child criminal exploitation and ‘cuckooing’.
RIAMS in action
RIAMS Libraries is the number one subscription platform for environmental health, providing a comprehensive library of practical and easily accessible procedures, notices, letters, guidance and forms covering all specialisms. Supporting local authorities in delivering robust and consistent enforcement, RIAMS provides a cost-effective solution for your team, keeping officers on the front line.
Supporting environmental health in Scotland
RIAMS is beginning its expansion into Scotland and we are looking for an outstanding environmental health professional to lead this next phase and join us as RIAMS Editor for Scotland. If you are interested in helping to shape the future of environmental health in Scotland, we’d love to hear from you.
Activity: In January, we reviewed and updated 195 documents on RIAMS Libraries, including 104 procedures for England, Northern Ireland and Wales. We also added new letter templates for entering land to carry out works in default under section 219 of the Town and Country Planning Act (PL50/51).
A closer look
Procedure: Powers of Entry (MP23)
Module: Enforcement
Relevant to: All practitioners undertaking inspections and enforcement
Countries: England, Northern Ireland and Wales
Powers of Entry (MP23) sets out the general framework for authorised officers using powers of entry to investigate legal compliance. It explains the legal basis, approval processes and practical steps required to ensure entry to property or land is lawful and properly documented.
The procedure highlights the different statutory provisions, the need to check primary legislation and to have regard to the Home Office Code of Practice, as well as how detrimental deviating from the correct process can be.
It covers key points for practitioners, including:
Documented authorisations, legally robust delegated powers and agreed processes for approval
Human rights considerations and identification
When to provide notice of powers and rights and the use of PACE
When entry is refused, use of warrants and the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025
Proper conduct and working within your powers
Record-keeping and risk assessment.
In short, the procedure gives the operational and legal framework that inspecting officers must follow when exercising powers of entry to undertake enforcement. Read the full procedure here.
If your organisation doesn’t yet subscribe to RIAMS Libraries, contact RHE Global to book your free demonstration and trial.
What’s new on RIAMS Communities?
Local authority practitioners continue to sign up to our environmental health forums and engage in conversations across private water supplies, ASB, environmental protection and housing. Take the opportunity to join the discussion and network with colleagues in your chosen subject areas here.
RIAMS Communities is now available to environmental health students on accredited EH courses in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Students affiliated with an accredited university can register using their .ac.uk email address and join the conversation at communities.riams.org.
Not Everything, but Definitely More Than Something: January’s Question of the Month with Dr Tim Everett explores what ‘reasonably practicable’ means when investigating statutory nuisance, how far councils need to go, where they have succeeded and where they may stumble. Case law shows that the definition is narrower than what is physically possible and involves weighing the seriousness and likelihood of harm against what is workable in practice. Councils cannot rely on blanket policies and must consider local circumstances and available resources to ensure they deliver proportional, context-specific investigations. You can read the blog in full here.
RHE Global
RHE Global supports environmental health practitioners across all specialisms to work smarter, network and share best practices. Visit RIAMS to stay up to date with the latest environmental health developments and discussions.
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