For social landlords, heating stopped being purely an energy question on 27 October 2025. Awaab’s Law put statutory timescales around hazard response, and its 2026 phase brings excess cold into scope. Smart heating controls for social landlords matter now because they turn heating performance from something you hear about in complaints into something you can see, evidence and act on.
Short answer: Awaab's Law has applied to social landlords since 27 October 2025, and its 2026 phase brings excess cold into scope. Smart heating controls give social landlords continuous room-level temperature data, turning a reactive complaints process into evidence you can act on before a hazard develops.
Awaab’s Law came into force for the social rented sector on 27 October 2025 and applies to almost all social housing let by a registered provider, with limited exceptions. It sets fixed timescales rather than general duties:
Phase 1 covered emergencies and damp and mould. The 2026 phase extends the framework to further hazards including excess cold and excess heat, with the remaining HHSRS hazards following in 2027.
The operational consequence is significant. Once excess cold sits inside a statutory timescale, the clock starts when you become aware of it, and the quality of your awareness becomes a compliance question rather than a service one.
Most social landlords learn a home is cold when the resident reports it. That is a slow, incomplete signal. Residents in fuel poverty often do not report a cold home because they believe the cost is their own responsibility, and by the time it surfaces the condensation and mould have already started.
Continuous room-level temperature monitoring inverts that. Instead of waiting for a report, you can see which properties are running consistently below a safe threshold, which have heating that is running but not reaching target, and which show the temperature and humidity pattern that precedes mould growth.
That is the difference between responding within 10 working days of a complaint and identifying the problem before the complaint exists.
Data matters because cold homes have different causes and different remedies, and they are hard to distinguish from a phone call:
Sending a heating engineer to a home in the second category solves nothing and costs a visit. Room-level data tells you which of the three you are dealing with before anyone is dispatched.
It is worth being explicit that the aim in social housing is different from a bills-included private let. The objective is not to cap what residents use; it is to make sure homes are warm, safe and affordable to run.
In practice that means using controls to remove waste that residents are not choosing, heating empty rooms, running while windows are open, holding hot water at temperature for a demand pattern that does not exist, so that the energy being paid for is energy the household actually benefits from. Where a home shows the signature of underheating for affordability reasons, the right response is to route it to your fuel poverty or income teams.
The same room-level approach we use in student accommodation and managed housing applies here, and the how it works page sets out what the system monitors.
Awaab’s Law requires a written summary of the investigation to the resident, and the wider framework rewards landlords who can show what they knew and when. Temperature history provides that record without anyone compiling it: what the room temperature was, what the heating was doing, and what changed after the intervention.
It also demonstrates resolution. Being able to show that a property has held a safe temperature for the eight weeks since a repair is a stronger position than a closed job ticket, both with residents and with the regulator.
The practical objection is always scale and access. Wireless radiator controls and room sensors avoid re-wiring, so individual homes are quick, and most social landlords phase a rollout: void properties first, where access is free, then the stock flagged by existing damp and mould records, then planned programmes alongside other works.
Starting with the properties already on your risk register has the useful side effect of putting monitoring exactly where the compliance exposure is greatest.
Our installation and project management team runs phased programmes of this kind, and our work with Coventry City Council shows the approach in a public sector setting. Servicing and maintenance contracts cover the ongoing support.
Does Awaab’s Law cover excess cold?
Not in its first phase, which covered emergency hazards and damp and mould from 27 October 2025. The 2026 phase extends the framework to further hazards including excess cold, with the remaining HHSRS hazards following in 2027.
How do smart heating controls help with Awaab’s Law compliance?
They provide continuous room-level temperature data, so a cold home can be identified from the data rather than waiting for a resident to report it, and they create a record of conditions before and after any intervention.
What are the Awaab’s Law timescales for damp and mould?
A significant hazard must be investigated within 10 working days, a written summary provided to the resident within 3 working days of the investigation, and relevant safety work completed within 5 working days of the investigation concluding. Emergency hazards must be made safe within 24 hours.
Can heating controls be installed in occupied social housing?
Yes. Wireless controls avoid re-wiring, so individual homes are quick to complete. Most landlords phase a programme starting with voids and with properties already flagged on damp and mould records.
This article summarises publicly available guidance on Awaab’s Law and related duties as at August 2026. It is general information rather than legal or compliance advice, and you should check current government guidance for your organisation’s obligations.
If you are preparing for the excess cold phase and want to know what room-level monitoring would show across your stock, we can walk through a phased rollout with you.
