42.2%. That’s the proportion of private rented homes in Calderdale that are non-decent. It’s the worst in England. Nearly half are failing basic standards for health, safety, or comfort. They have hazards serious enough to cause chronic illness, permanent injury, or even death. Excess cold. Damp and mould. Electrical faults. Structural failures. The kind of conditions that killed two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale in 2020.
And the rents? Average Calderdale rent was £545 a month in 2020. Now it’s £733. A 34.5% increase in five years.
So, tenants are paying significantly more to live in homes that are measurably getting worse. This isn’t just a housing crisis. It’s a health crisis, hidden in plain sight, affecting people you know.
The data
The government’s English Housing Survey Local Authority Stock Condition Modelling 2023 shows Calderdale has the highest proportion of non-decent private rented homes in England. The Yorkshire & Humber region overall shows 31% of private rented homes are non-decent, compared to 21% nationally. Calderdale exceeds even that dismal regional figure.
“Non-decent” isn’t vague bureaucratic language. Under the Decent Homes Standard, a property must meet four criteria: no Category 1 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, a reasonable state of repair, modern facilities, and adequate heating. Fail any one criterion and the home is non-decent.
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System defines Category 1 hazards as risks serious enough that local authorities have a legal duty to act. Not a discretionary power. A duty. These aren’t minor problems. The most common Category 1 hazards nationally in 2023 were falls on stairs (207,208 cases), excess cold (114,373 cases), and damp (161,972 homes). These are homes that can injure or even kill you.
But perhaps landlords are charging less to compensate for substandard properties?
Paying more for worse
Let’s check. Year-on-year from March 2024 to March 2025, rents here rose 6.6%, from £657 to £701. And the Office for National Statistics data shows Calderdale’s average private rent increased from £545 in October 2020 to £733 in October 2025: a 34.5% increase over that period.
That’s £188 more per month than in 2020. £2,256 more per year. For homes that are statistically more likely to be hazardous.
What didn’t that money buy? Better heating? No: only 86% of private rented homes have central heating, compared to 95% of owner-occupied homes. Better repair? Freedom from damp? Safety from structural hazards? No, no, no.
In 2020, £545 got you substandard housing. In 2025, £733 gets you the same or worse substandard housing, just more expensive. The market hasn’t corrected itself, it’s intensified.
Getting worse, not better
National patterns from the 2019-2023 English Housing Survey data show that overall non-decency decreased from 17% to 15%. Category 1 hazards decreased in the owner-occupied and social housing sectors. Some progress, at least for some tenures.
But damp increased across most regions, including Yorkshire & Humber, across both owner-occupied and rented sectors. And crucially, the private rented sector showed no statistically significant decrease in non-decency. It’s still 21% nationally. It’s still 31% in Yorkshire & Humber. And it’s still 42.2% in Calderdale.
Between 2021 and 2023, Category 1 hazards in the private rented sector did decrease nationally, from 14% to 10%. But that’s still double the rate in social housing, which sits at 4%. And, here in Calderdale, the overall non-decency figure suggests that any improvement hasn’t reached us at all.
Why does the private rented sector stay bad? Because enforcement is weak, penalties are inadequate, and landlords face minimal consequences for non-compliance. It’s because tenants fear reporting it, given the risk of eviction, homelessness, and losing their deposits.
The Renters’ Rights Act promises tougher enforcement and an extension of the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector. The Act received Royal Assent in October 2025, with major provisions like the abolition of Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions coming into effect in May 2026. But the Decent Homes Standard itself? Let’s have a reality check here: the government consulted on implementation dates of 2035 or 2037 but on their own roadmap it still shows as “TBC – subject to consultation”. Even 2035 is a very long time when excess cold is a Category 1 hazard and your landlord won’t fix the heating. ‘To be confirmed’ is so much worse.
The enforcement gap
Calderdale Council has enforcement powers under its Housing Enforcement Policy, which was revised in July 2023. The Council can issue improvement notices for Category 1 hazards. It can prosecute landlords, issue civil penalties, pursue rent repayment orders, and apply for banning orders against the worst landlords.
The reality? Enforcement is reactive, not proactive. It relies on tenants reporting problems. But tenants don’t report, because they fear Section 21 “no-fault” evictions (at least until that part of the Renters’ Rights Act is enacted). They fear landlord retaliation. They struggle to find alternative housing. They’re worried about losing their deposits; they’re worried about their kids losing school places; they’re worried their dog may end up at the RSPCA.
Calderdale Council’s own enforcement policy states that “Officers will start with a position of zero tolerance for serious offences or clear contraventions or breaches of legislation.”
A figure of 42.2% suggests that either the tolerance isn’t zero, or the enforcement isn’t adequate.
The lived reality
I can’t tell you who exactly lives in non-decent housing. But when 42.2% of private rented homes in Calderdale are non-decent, this isn’t a small problem affecting distant strangers. “Excess cold” isn’t an abstract hazard category. It’s why people sit in the library for hours, each and every day throughout the winter. It’s why ‘just pop the heating on’ isn’t an option for them.
People are moving between designated warm spaces throughout the week. Not just for the company, but because their homes are cold, damp and dangerous.
What we’re accepting
Let’s be clear about what these numbers mean. With 42.2% of private rented homes non-decent, that’s thousands of homes…occupied homes. With people living in them. Children, the elderly, those with disabilities, people on low – or even average – incomes.
This isn’t an unfortunate accident, nor is it an inevitable consequence of old buildings. It’s the result of policy choices, enforcement failures, and market dynamics that prioritise profit over safety.
Anger over this should be universal. If 42.2% of restaurants failed food safety standards, they’d be closed. If 42.2% of cars failed their MOT for safety-critical defects, they’d be off the road. And rightly so. But 42.2% of private rented homes can fail basic habitability standards and we just… accept it; 42.2% of private rented homes can fail basic habitability standards and landlords still collect rising rents.
This is what we’re currently accepting. Not what we should accept, but what we are accepting. This isn’t happening in some distant country. It’s here, and it’s now. It’s a family in the terraced house with mould growing up the walls, a family who can’t heat their home, even if they could afford it. It’s 42.2% of an entire sector charging more for homes that can make our friends, families and neighbours sick.
And right now, we’re doing nothing.
Friends of Bylines Network
There has never been a greater need for grassroots journalism that investigates the stories that really matter, holds power to account and champions the voices of everyday citizens. We are proudly powered by volunteers but what we do isn’t free.
STAND WITH US for independent, citizen-led journalism that makes democracy stronger, and you will even get some exclusive benefits.
