Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of taking steps to ensure social housing providers adopt priority registers that ensure the most vulnerable people are prioritised when raising housing concerns.

Local authorities have the freedom to tailor their allocation priorities to meet the needs of their local communities, including the most vulnerable people. In framing their social housing allocation scheme, they must ensure that reasonable preference (priority) is given to people who are homeless, in overcrowded housing or who need to move for medical or welfare reasons. This is to ensure that the priority for social housing goes to those who need it most.

Furthermore, as outlined in separate allocations guidance, local authorities have the power to frame their allocation scheme to give additional preference to particular descriptions of people who fall within the statutory reasonable preference categories and have urgent housing needs.