The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 were made at 12.12 pm on 1 June 2026, laid before Parliament later the same day, and come into force on 23 June 2026. The instrument, published on legislation.gov.uk and signed by Taylor of Stevenage for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, amends the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) Regulations 2005 under powers in the Housing Act 2004. The Regulations extend to England and Wales. According to the explanatory note, the stated purpose is to make the prescribed method for assessing the seriousness of housing hazards easier to understand and apply, while also revising several of the hazard descriptions used in inspections under Part 1 of the 2004 Act.
The change is technical, but it matters because HHSRS scoring sits behind decisions on whether a local housing authority is dealing with a category 1 or category 2 hazard. The 2005 Regulations already required inspectors to consider both the likelihood of harm occurring and the seriousness of the outcome if harm occurs. This instrument keeps that structure, but rewrites parts of the terminology and presentation. One of the clearest drafting changes is the replacement of the old Classes I to IV with the labels Extreme, Severe, Serious and Moderate. In the same vein, the tables used in the scoring method are renamed and simplified, which the explanatory note presents as a readability change rather than a full redesign of the assessment model.
The most visible operational amendment is the removal of hazard bands A to J. Regulation 6 of the new instrument substitutes three bands instead: High, Medium and Low. Regulation 8 then aligns the legal categories with those new bands, so that a hazard falls within category 1 if its numerical score is in the High band, and within category 2 if the score sits in the Medium or Low bands. For councils, landlords and housing advisers, the practical effect is a plainer classification system at the reporting stage. The instrument does not alter the basic position that numerical scoring determines the seriousness of a hazard, but it does change the language that inspection records and compliance discussions are likely to use from late June onwards.
Fire risk is also widened. The 2005 Regulations described the prescribed fire hazard by reference to exposure to uncontrolled fire and associated smoke. Regulation 4 of the 2026 instrument replaces that wording so that the hazard now covers uncontrolled fire and associated smoke and fumes, an explosion, and the collapse of the whole or part of a building as a result of fire or an explosion. That matters because the statutory description now captures a broader chain of consequences from a fire-related event. According to the explanatory note, the amendment is intended not only to clarify that fumes are included, but also to widen the fire and structural collapse descriptors so they are not confined to collapse of, or explosion at, the dwelling or HMO itself.
Schedule 1 is where the restructuring is most apparent. Several older hazard descriptions are omitted and replaced with broader combined descriptors. New paragraph 4A brings together exposure to chemicals used to treat timber and mould growth, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and smoke, uncombusted fuel gas, and volatile organic compounds. New paragraph 14A groups a series of domestic hygiene issues, including inadequate food preparation facilities, inability to keep a dwelling or HMO clean, pests, waste storage and disposal, personal hygiene facilities, and sanitation and drainage. Other changes merge several accident-related hazards. New paragraph 18A covers falls linked to toilets, baths, showers and other washing facilities, falls on any level surface, and falls between surfaces where the level change is less than 300 millimetres. New paragraph 23A separates exposure to uncontrolled fire and associated smoke and fumes from explosion, while new paragraph 25A addresses collision with, or entrapment of body parts in, doors, windows and other architectural features, as well as the position and operability of amenities, fittings and equipment.
The structural wording is broadened in smaller but important ways. Regulation 8 also changes paragraph 29 of Schedule 1 so that the reference is to 'a building' rather than 'the dwelling or HMO'. Read with the explanatory note, that points to a wider framing of risk where harm may arise from conditions connected with the building more generally, rather than only the specific unit under inspection. The drafting changes in regulation 6 likewise update cross-references for 'relevant occupier' and replace the old ordinal phrases for harm classes with clearer wording about the 'other classes of harm'. These are not headline changes, but they matter for legal certainty because HHSRS decisions often turn on exactly how an inspecting officer applies the prescribed formula.
The commencement and transition provision deserves close attention. The Regulations as a whole come into force on 23 June 2026. However, regulation 10 states that, for inspections under section 4 of the Housing Act 2004, the amendments made by regulations 3 to 9 apply only to an inspection commenced on or after 22 June 2026. That is the date set out in the instrument, alongside the general coming-into-force date of 23 June 2026. The explanatory note also states that no full impact assessment has been produced because no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. Even so, the immediate administrative effect is clear: local housing authorities will need inspection templates, training material and decision letters to reflect the new terminology, while landlords, managing agents and advisers will need to recognise that the enforcement framework in Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004 remains in place even though the hazard language and descriptors have been revised.