Aileen Edmunds, Chief Executive of Longleigh, a charitable foundation supporting individuals and communities served by the social housing sector has called for action over the poor provision of flooring in Social Housing. 

Alongside Altair, a consultancy specialising in the social housing sector, Longleigh have conducted extensive investigations into flooring provisions within social housing at the point of let across England, Scotland and Wales. 

Having interviewed tenants, landlords and stakeholders at length their findings have now been published.  The report contains recommendations for politicians, officials, social landlords and their tenants. Report findings revealed that 760,000 adults in social housing may be living without floor coverings (which may be as many as 15% of households in social housing), with almost four in five social housing tenants moving into homes with partial or no floor coverings. 

Findings on the report can be found: Final-Report-Longleigh-Flooring-v2.pdf (altairltd.co.uk) 

Longleigh has a deep insight into welfare and social justice within social housing and are embarking on action to raise awareness on the societal benefits of adequate floor coverings in social housing. They are calling upon the government to fund an increase in floor covering standards in social housing immediately. 

Aileen has stated that “Longleigh find it unacceptable that individuals in social housing, who have the lowest level of income or savings of any housing tenure, are disproportionately affected by a lack of this necessity.  

Wales has a new quality standard on floor coverings, and funding; Scotland has national welfare funding to provide flooring but social housing tenants in England are not offered the same standards or funding. These disparities must be rectified to ensure that all social tenants have access to safe and comfortable living conditions”. 

For more information please visit: www.longleigh.org