social housing

The Government has placed social housing upgrades at the centre of its new £15 billion Warm Homes Plan, unveiled today as part of a decade‑long effort to cut bills, tackle fuel poverty and modernise Britain’s ageing housing stock.

Ministers say the programme will deliver the largest investment in social housing energy efficiency in a generation, with a major share of funding directed towards improving cold, damp and inefficient homes across the sector.

Contractors and providers can now find IVC Commercial’s dedicated housing floors on a new website, ivc-floorsforhousing.co.uk, making it easy to find affordable sheet vinyl floors for living areas and public use.

Featuring its dedicated social and affordable housing ranges for private areas in Zenura Style, Zenura Luxe, Zenura Ultimate and Zenura Elegance LVS, as well as the Isafe 70 and Pioneer 70 heavy-duty ranges; the website gives instant access to high-quality sheet vinyl flooring made in Europe. Users can also see the benefits of using sheet vinyl in social and affordable housing, and how it can help to raise the standard of housing provision. 

Today’s social housing providers are focused on the need to deliver tenants a good standard of housing and with floor coverings proven to be beneficial to the well-being of tenants, ensuring adequate coverings in all rooms can contribute to that focus. However, with concerns over cost and health and safety worries from poor quality coverings, many tenants still endure moving into properties without floor coverings in rooms where they are not required by relevant standards, facing living in poor conditions or taking on debt to improve their home. The impact on well-being is significant, as one social housing tenant reveals:

Howard Trotter, Business Manager at Shelforce reflects on the rise of the super-regulator, Gateway 2 and the golden thread.

Amid seismic regulatory change, one thing is clear: for local authorities and housing associations delivering social housing, the era of doing things by habit or assumption has passed.

As the manufacturing and supply partner for windows, doors and fire doors working directly with councils and housing providers, at Shelforce we believe this new landscape demands sharper clarity, stronger traceability and a supply chain that can genuinely deliver to the new standard.

For housing associations, maintaining efficient and reliable heating systems across large and diverse property portfolios remains a significant challenge. Ensuring tenant comfort, meeting sustainability goals, and keeping maintenance costs under control all depend on one critical factor — system protection.

Across thousands of homes, even minor inefficiencies can lead to increased energy consumption, higher maintenance workloads, and dissatisfied residents. In almost every heating system, contamination occurs over time, such as rust, dirt and magnetite particles caused by corrosion and if left untreated, these particles circulate through pipework and components, reducing efficiency, increasing wear, and potentially causing costly breakdowns.

Beauflor® sheet vinyl floors go beyond standards to improve the quality of social housing.

In social housing projects ensuring your choice of floor complies with health and safety regulations is an essential part of the specification process. With Beauflor sheet vinyl flooring for social housing, no matter which floor you choose you are guaranteed full health and safety compliance.

With Beauflor sheet vinyl, social housing providers can ensure their tenants benefit from a welcoming floor that gives a better standard of living .

The positive impacts of providing social tenants with good quality flooring throughout their accommodation are well-documented. Along with other furnishings, flooring can help to create a ‘sense of home’, improving well-being, boosting integration and reducing loneliness, lessening financial strain and giving a sense of pride. Social housing providers also benefit, reductions in void rent loss, reduced void turnover and costs, reduced refusal rates and fewer complaints have all been cited as benefits of providing floor coverings.