Just over two years ago, Roy Irwin, chief inspector of housing, discussed in the pages of EHJ how environmental health departments were struggling to understand how their work slotted into the best value for housing regime EHJ, March 2000, page 78-81.

At the time, Mr Irwin stated that: "Best value applies to all local authority housing services, and the work of the Housing Inspectorate will cover all of the housing services provided by housing authorities, irrespective of the organisational structures adopted by councils." He went on to promise that the inspectorate would "in the next five years, go into every London borough, district, unitary and metropolitan authority".

In this issue, John Rood, a consultant with the Housing Quality Network, discusses the results of last year's inspection reports. Disappointingly, he reports that the majority of councils inspected received 1-star (fair) results and that only three council's have managed to impress inspectors so far. Read on to discover what the key improvement areas are, before the inspectors land on your doorstep.

Also on the topic of housing, Jill Stewart looks at local housing need and the benefits of local authority landlord accreditation schemes. Accreditation may be a step in the right direction toward licensing the private rented sector - a move that is welcomed by the CIEH - but there is still a long way to go. Jane Douglas presents the case for installing residential sprinkler systems in houses in multiple occupation as a means of reducing the unacceptably high fire death rate, while I talk to Steve Ballinger at Shelter about its call for help in improving the health and housing of thousands of vulnerable youngsters in the UK.

Finally, on a different note, David Lyons explains the complex law of evidence, and looks at some of the reasons why seemingly straightforward food hygiene prosecutions fail. A must for anyone involved in food safety investigations.

Tracey Khanna, Editor