19 Jan Celebrating Five Years of Progress: Setting the Standard Impact Report 2025

Setting the Standard (StS) marks the end of its fifth year with the publication of our 2025 Impact Report. This milestone reflects both the scale of our progress (from idea to pilot to embedded practice), and the strength of pan London collaboration in raising standards in temporary accommodation.

Over the last 12 months, StS has delivered tangible improvements for some of London’s most vulnerable households. Working with 31 boroughs, we have expanded crucial oversight of the market, strengthened accountability for providers, and continued to support our local authorities to make safer and more informed placement decisions.

This has also been a landmark year for national recognition. In 2025, StS was shortlisted for a Local Government Chronicle award, received an official visit from Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and was featured as a best practice case study in the Government’s new national homelessness strategy. These achievements reinforce the importance and impact of our work, and cement StS as a model of effective collaboration and innovation.

Key Highlights from the Report:

• Greater visibility and oversight:
  Our new AutoUpload tool has transformed intelligence gathering within the service, identifying properties that previously fell outside the inspection system. Already, over 1,300 buildings have been added via this tool, and .
• Improved standards and safer homes:
  Through targeted inspection, rapid escalation of hazards and proactive provider engagement, we achieved a 73% reduction in Grade E properties across the StS system in 2025.
  This includes 20 unsafe properties removed from the temporary accommodation market altogether, ensuring 230 households are no longer living in dangerous conditions.
• Driving change through provider accountability:
  Our new Provider of Concern process has led to a 90% reduction in new placements with those unsafe or noncompliant providers. Actions taken through this process have prompted major improvements in management practices and, in some cases, providers withdrawing unsafe stock entirely.
• Greater control over temporary accommodation costs:
  Working with London Councils and independent experts, we have rebuilt the InterBorough Accommodation Agreement (IBAA) dataset, launched new dynamic dashboards with 20+ tailored reports, and developed a new rate formula to help boroughs better manage costs in a challenging market. This agreement has been refreshed and renamed the London Accommodation Management Agreement (LAMA)

Looking Ahead

With a mandate to explore widening StS’s remit acrossa wider range of private rented properties being used as TA and an expansion of our data driven tools, the next year will be focused on influence, inclusion, resilience, and productivity.

Our mission remains clear: to ensure safe, accountable, high quality temporary accommodation for every household that relies on London’s support.

Read the full report here.