Phase 2 · Heating, plumbing and gas

Awaab's Law Phase 2 and heating engineers: what changes on 30 November 2026

Excess cold comes into scope on the day before meteorological winter begins. For social housing work, a heating failure stops being a booking and starts being a statutory deadline.

Published 31 July 2026 · Based on MHCLG guidance dated July 2026

Awaab's Law training Read the guidance on gov.uk

Awaab's Law has been reported almost entirely as a damp and mould story, and as a social housing story. From 30 November 2026 it stops being either of those things exclusively. Phase 2 brings excess cold into scope, and excess cold in a social home is usually a heating failure.

That matters to heating, plumbing and gas contractors for a reason that has nothing to do with the regulations applying to you directly. They do not. Awaab's Law applies to the landlord. But the landlord cannot meet a 24 hour deadline without the contractor who actually attends, so the deadline is passed down through the contract. From 30 November, a housing client's tolerance for "we can get someone out next Tuesday" changes, because next Tuesday puts them in breach.

What comes into scope on 30 November 2026

Phase 2 adds seven hazard groups to the two already covered. The groups most relevant here are Excess cold and Excess heat. The full Phase 2 list is: damp and mould, excess cold, excess heat, falls, structural collapse, fire and explosions, electrical hazards, and domestic hygiene, wherever they present a significant risk of harm to an occupier. All emergency hazards other than overcrowding remain in scope as they have been since Phase 1.

Awaab's Law applies to registered providers of social housing in England, both local authorities and housing associations, for almost all social housing occupied under a tenancy. It does not apply to housing occupied under a licence, to long leaseholds or to shared ownership.

The deadlines, which do not change

Phase 2 does not alter the timescales. It applies the existing ones to a much wider hazard list:

24 hours: Investigate a potential emergency hazard and complete the relevant safety work, both within 24 hours of the landlord becoming aware of it.
10 working days: Investigate a potential significant hazard within 10 working days of the landlord becoming aware of it.
3 working days: Give the tenant a written summary of the investigation findings within 3 working days of the investigation concluding.
5 working days: Complete relevant safety work within 5 working days of the investigation concluding, where a significant hazard is identified.
12 weeks: Begin supplementary preventative work within 5 working days of the investigation concluding; where that is not possible, begin as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case within 12 weeks.

Timeframes usually start the day after the triggering event. The exception is the 24 hour emergency clock, which starts as soon as the landlord becomes aware of a potential emergency hazard.

Where the 24 hour clock bites

The government guidance gives examples of emergency hazards. These fall to this trade:

Gas leaks and carbon monoxide leaks
Broken boilers
Total loss of water supply
Major leaks

Three of the guidance's own emergency examples sit squarely in heating and plumbing work. An emergency hazard is one a reasonable landlord would make safe within 24 hours, and the clock starts as soon as the landlord becomes aware, not the day after.

Whether a specific broken boiler is an emergency, a significant hazard or neither is the landlord's assessment to make, and it turns on what they know about the household. The same fault in a home with a vulnerable or elderly occupant can be categorised differently from the same fault elsewhere. What changes for the contractor is the response the landlord will need, and how quickly they will need it evidenced.

What it means commercially

The guidance expects landlords to have clear instructions and processes in place so that issues raised with contractors reach the landlord, and so that works can begin within the deadlines. In practice that means three things arriving in social housing contracts over the coming months: faster call-out expectations for heating faults, an obligation to report back what was found rather than just that the job was done, and evidence trails with dates and times that will stand up if the landlord is challenged.

Contractors who can demonstrate they understand the timescales, and who report in a form the landlord can put straight into their Awaab's Law record, are a materially easier partner from 30 November onwards.

Why this is coming from a mould training provider

A fair question. UKAME is not an authority on fire, gas or electrical engineering, and this page does not pretend otherwise. You know your trade considerably better than we do.

What we have is a year of watching what these particular deadlines do to an organisation. Damp and mould went first: it has been under Awaab's Law since 27 October 2025, and mould remediation is the trade that has already had to learn what a statutory clock does to triage, reporting and contractor relationships. Phase 2 hands that same experience to seven more hazard groups at once, four days before winter. The transferable part is the compliance machinery, not the technical work, and that is the only part we teach.

Our Awaab's Law training is delivered by Tristan Hemsley, a Specialist Disrepair and Awaab's Law Consultant with 25+ years in housing property services across social housing, local authorities and main contractors.

Phase 2 in other sectors

Phase 2 pulls in several trades at once. The same deadlines, read from a different bench:

The full guidance and the hazards annex are on gov.uk. For the whole picture, see our Phase 2 explainer.

Awaab's Law Phase 2 explained See Awaab's Law training

About UKAME: UKAME (UK Academy of Mould Experts) is a training and membership provider for damp, mould and housing-compliance professionals. UKAME training courses cover mould remediation and Awaab's Law compliance for contractors, surveyors and housing teams.

Contact: info@mouldexperts.org.uk · mouldexperts.org.uk