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 introducing a robust mandatory licensing scheme for Exempt Accommodation.

On 17 March, I announced the Government’s intention to address quality concerns in supported exempt accommodation, and introduce measures to put an end to unscrupulous landlords exploiting some of the most vulnerable in our society.

The package of measures announced include:

• Standards for the support provided to residents to ensure residents receive the good quality support they expect and deserve.
• New powers for local authorities to enforce standards and be able to better manage their local supported housing market.
• Changes to Housing Benefit regulations to seek to define care, support and supervision to improve quality and value for money across all specified supported housing provision.

The measures are intended to mandate providers to deliver quality services and hold landlords to account where they are not doing this. We will bring these forward when parliamentary time allows.