Social Housing

Tuesday 30th January 2024 Written Statements

[The Minister for Housing, Planning and Building Safety (Lee Rowley)]

Social housing is a finite resource and in any compassionate society it is incumbent upon the Government of the day to ensure it is utilised in the most effective way to support those who truly need it and those who play by the rules. This is not least because those fortunate enough to get a social home benefit from paying below market rents and almost all will have the security of that social home for life.

Over 1 million households are on the social housing waiting list and around a quarter-of-million new tenancies are agreed each year. It is therefore important that social housing is fairly allocated. The British public want to know that decent and hard-working people who have contributed to this country can secure a home in their local community. People already living in social homes want to know that anyone moving near them will be respectful of their neighbours. That is why the Government are going to make sure that all applicants and tenants benefit from a system that rewards responsible behaviour and protects local households, while supporting the most vulnerable and those in priority need.

Today we are launching a consultation on our proposed reforms regarding who is eligible and who qualifies for social housing, and how local housing authorities decide to allocate social housing stock where demand exceeds supply. The changes seek to prevent people who abuse the system from benefiting at the expense of those who have played by the rules.

The reforms would apply both to new applicants in England and those who are already on a social housing waiting list. The introduction of a UK connection test and new qualification tests—local connection test, terrorism and antisocial behaviour tests, false statement test and income test—will apply to new social housing applicants and those on a waiting list, meaning those currently living in social housing would not be subject to these new tests. The new ground for eviction for unspent terrorism convictions, as well as the “three strikes and you’re out” policy for antisocial behaviour, would apply to those currently living in social housing as well as future tenants.

When drawing up qualification tests, local housing authorities decide on matters including when to prioritise those newly arrived in the country or a local area over local families; and under which circumstances they should allocate a social home to a high-income household over a lower income one, or to grant social housing to those who commit antisocial behaviour. Our proposals seek to set a national minimum standard for qualification tests while still allowing for local flexibility.

Social housing waiting lists have stabilised at around 1.2 million after rising from 1 million in 1997 to 1.7 million in 2010 under the last Labour Government. The waiting list remains too high, but it is also essential that local housing authorities do not disproportionately allocate social housing to those newly arrived in the country or local area while local families are left on waiting lists. In Labour-run Brent, 40% of new social lets in 2021-22 were to non-British citizens. In Labour-run Oxford the figure was 25% and in Labour-run Haringey the figure was 24%.

The Government believe that everyone has the right to a safe, decent and warm home that meets their needs. We have made significant progress both to increase the quality and quantity of social housing, and at the same time to hold negligent landlords to account.

Under the affordable homes programme, the Government are spending over £11.5 billion of taxpayers’ money to deliver more than 100,000 affordable homes, among them tens of thousands specifically for social rent. This will unlock a further £38 billion in public and private spending in affordable housing. It builds on the Government’s record since 2010—with over 696,000 new affordable homes delivered, including over 172,000 for social rent. Through the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, we have strengthened the powers of the Regulator of Social Housing, and improved residents’ ability to seek redress by granting new powers to the Housing Ombudsman.

Overview of proposals



The new set of tests on which we are seeking views are as follows:

UK connection test—requiring people to be a British citizen, Irish citizen, Commonwealth citizen with a right of abode, or EEA or Swiss citizen with equal treatment rights in matters of housing under the withdrawal agreement, the EEA-EFTA separation agreement or the Swiss citizens’ rights agreement, or otherwise to have been lawfully resident in the UK for 10 years, in order to be eligible for social housing. We are consulting on an exemption for those arriving via safe and legal resettlement routes and the Ukrainian temporary visa schemes. This will allow for the allocation of more social homes to those with the strongest connection to the UK, while enabling the Government to continue to deliver their commitments to provide urgent humanitarian support.

Local connection test—preventing individuals from being allocated social housing if they have not had links to the local authority area for two years—for example, through residence or work. This will ensure greater consistency across the country and ensure more local people can access social housing in the area they call home where they need it, supporting people to put down roots and maintain links to family and community.

Income test—households earning above a maximum threshold —to be defined following responses to the consultation—would not qualify for social housing. This would only apply to new tenants and existing tenants would be unaffected.

Antisocial behaviour test—disqualifying people who have unspent convictions for certain criminal antisocial behaviour offences, as well as certain civil orders, from social housing for a defined period.

Terrorism test—we propose that people who have unspent terrorism convictions should be disqualified from social housing unless excluding them would increase the risk to public safety.

False statement test—mandating a period of disqualification for those who knowingly or recklessly make false statements when applying for social housing.

The Government do not believe that those who repeatedly commit acts of antisocial behaviour or have unspent terrorism offences should continue to access social homes while law-abiding individuals remain on waiting lists. We are keen that all social landlords should be able to evict those who have unspent convictions for terrorist offences; we are also committed to a “three strikes and you’re out” expectation of social housing landlords, as set out in the “Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan” published last year. This means that they will be expected to evict tenants whose behaviour is disruptive to neighbours and jeopardises community cohesion.

To ensure that the reforms are informed by the expertise of local housing authorities, social landlords, tenants and the wider public, the full consultation launched today will run for eight weeks. Reforms based on the consultation responses will ensure that waiting lists are managed effectively and that more social housing is allocated to those with the closest connection to the UK and their local area. Changes will be delivered by secondary legislation at the earliest opportunity.

The proposals will help to fulfil the Government’s pledge to tackle antisocial behaviour, and ensure we preserve and protect the country’s social housing.

A copy of the consultation document will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and published on www.gov.uk.

[HCWS225]