Domestic abuse survivors to receive stronger tenancy protections under Social Housing Bill

Domestic abuse survivors will receive stronger legal protections to remain in their social homes while perpetrators are removed, under proposed amendments to the Social Housing Bill.

The measures, announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 20 October, are intended to prevent survivors from having to choose between remaining in an abusive household and losing their home, tenancy and support networks.

The proposed changes would strengthen existing reforms in the Bill relating to joint tenancies, allowing courts to consider possession action against an abusive partner without requiring a survivor to prove the abuse again where a relevant protective order is already in place.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said the changes would ensure that perpetrators, rather than survivors, could be made to leave the home, preventing abusers from using shared housing as a means of control.

The amendments form part of a wider package of housing reforms intended to improve tenant protections, prevent homelessness and safeguard social housing for future generations.

The Bill will introduce a statutory duty requiring relevant public bodies to work together to identify households at risk of homelessness and take coordinated action to prevent people from losing their homes. A further statutory duty will require private registered providers of social housing to offer suitable accommodation to homeless households referred by local authorities, unless there is a good reason not to do so.

The Government also intends to reduce barriers to homelessness assistance for veterans by enabling the Secretary of State to specify circumstances in which local connection rules should not apply.

The reforms include changes to the social housing Right to Manage framework, giving council tenants a clearer route to take responsibility for housing services, including repairs, maintenance and communal facilities. The changes are intended to improve governance, information-sharing and safeguards where serious failures put residents at risk.

From April 2027, Tenant Management Organisations responsible for managing council housing will also be brought within Freedom of Information requirements. Residents will be able to request information about services including repairs, estate management and rent collection.

Other measures are intended to protect the existing social housing stock. Councils and housing associations will have eight weeks, rather than four, to consider purchasing social homes before they leave the sector. Councils will also be given greater powers to designate eligible rural areas for exemption from the Right to Buy, reducing the need to apply formally to the Government.

The Government expects the wider package of reforms to retain an additional 18,000 homes in the social housing sector over the next decade. The measures are backed by a stated £39bn investment in council, social and affordable housing.