Awaab’s Law Phase 2: What Social Housing Providers Need to Know Before November 2026

On 30 November 2026, Phase 2 of Awaab’s Law will come into force across England's social housing sector, expanding the responsibilities placed on social landlords to investigate and rectify housing hazards within defined timescales. The legislation follows the introduction of Phase 1 in October 2025, which focused primarily on damp, mould and emergency hazards.*

For housing associations, local authorities, asset managers, specifiers and installers, the next phase of implementation represents a significant shift towards healthier, safer homes and a more proactive approach to property management.

What Is Changing in November 2026?

From 30 November 2026, Awaab's Law will extend beyond damp and mould to include a wider range of Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards when they present a significant risk to residents. These include:

• Excess cold
• Excess heat
• Falls hazards
• Structural collapse and falling elements
• Fire hazards
• Electrical hazards
• Domestic hygiene, pests and refuse hazards

Social landlords will be required to investigate reported hazards, communicate findings to tenants and ensure remedial action is taken within legally prescribed timescales.*

What Does This Mean for the Housing Industry?

The inclusion of excess cold and excess heat is particularly relevant for those involved in designing, specifying and maintaining heating systems.

Landlords will increasingly need to demonstrate that homes can provide safe and comfortable internal temperatures while supporting energy efficiency objectives. This is likely to place greater emphasis on reliable heating controls, improved visibility of system performance and measures that help residents heat their homes effectively.

For specifiers and housing providers, there is a growing need to consider heating controls as part of a wider healthy homes strategy, alongside ventilation, insulation and building fabric improvements.

How Smart Home Ecosystems Can Help

While heating controls alone cannot ensure compliance with Awaab's Law, they can play an important role in helping landlords create healthier living environments and manage properties more effectively.

Drayton's range of heating controls and smart home solutions can help by:

• Supporting accurate and responsive temperature control throughout the home, aided by advanced accessibility features of products like Digistat.
• Helping maintain comfortable indoor temperatures during colder periods.
• Enabling room-by-room heating management to improve resident comfort.
• Providing greater visibility of heating system performance through connected solutions such as Wiser 2nd Generation.
• Helping optimise energy use, which may reduce the likelihood of under-heating caused by rising energy costs.
• Enabling remote monitoring of more domestic conditions like excess humidity, excess heat, presence of smoke and leaks, and open windows or doors by Wiser 2nd Generation smart sensors and devices.

For social housing providers balancing compliance, tenant wellbeing and decarbonisation objectives, smart heating controls can form an important part of a broader strategy to reduce housing risks and improve living conditions.

Looking Ahead

With Phase 2 of Awaab's Law now approaching, social landlords, contractors and specifiers should review existing housing stock, procedures and technology strategies well in advance of the November 2026 deadline.

The focus is clear: healthier homes, faster responses to hazards and better outcomes for residents. By combining effective property management with intelligent heating controls, the sector can play an important role in helping deliver safer and more comfortable homes for everyone.

[gov.uk]
[trowers.com]
[awaabslawguide.co.uk]