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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason the new model tenancy agreement does not extend to people living in social housing and assisted living facilities.

The Model Tenancy Agreement is the Government's suggested contract for assured shorthold tenancies in the private rented sector, which landlords and tenants can choose to use to agree a tenancy. The 'New' Model Tenancy Agreement revised the previous agreement, with changes focussed on making it easier for responsible tenants to have well behaved pets in their home.

Many social landlords set out their pet policies in their tenancy agreements and will allow tenants to keep pets where it is appropriate to do so, and provided they are well looked after and do not adversely affect the lives of neighbours and those living nearby.

In our Social Housing White Paper we encourage all social landlords to adopt similar policies. The circumstances in which pets may be kept are, however, for social landlords to determine locally, taking account of the views of their tenants.