Social Rented Housing: Tenants' Rights

(asked on 8th February 2018) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of statutory rights of occupiers of social housing to succeed to a tenancy on the death of the previous sole or joint tenant.


Answered by
Heather Wheeler Portrait
Heather Wheeler
This question was answered on 22nd February 2018

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 includes changes to the rules on succession that deliver a consistent approach across all local authority tenancies and ensure that common law partners are put on an equal footing with married couples and civil partners.

When in force, all spouses and partners will have a statutory right to succeed to a lifetime tenancy. Local authorities will be able to grant additional succession rights, and where they do so the tenant will receive a five year fixed term tenancy.

I believe that these changes strike the right balance between protection for tenants and their families, and flexibility for local authority landlords.

Reticulating Splines