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Social Housing Bill [HL] 2026-27

The Social Housing Bill [HL] 2026-27 was introduced in the House of Lords on 14 May 2026. The bill had its first reading in the House of Commons on 2 September 2026. Second reading is scheduled for 10 September 2026.

Aims of the bill

The bill implements commitments in the 2024 Labour Party manifesto (PDF) to “… prioritise the building of new social rented homes and better protect our existing stock…” (p39) and supports the government’s five-step plan to deliver a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing.

The bill’s principal objectives are to:

• protect existing social housing stock, thereby incentivising the building of more social rented homes.
• provide greater housing security and stability for social tenants who are victims and survivors of domestic abuse.
• clarify the statute book and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy so social housing providers can invest with greater confidence.

What would the bill do?

The bill, as brought from the House of Lords, consists of five parts and three schedules. 

Part 1 of the bill (clauses 1 to 12) would reduce the number of social homes sold through the Right to Buy (RtB) scheme, removing a disincentive for local authorities to build new supply, while maintaining a route to homeownership for eligible longstanding tenants.

The RtB reforms include provisions to:

• increase the eligibility period from three years as a secure tenant to 10 years.
• reform percentage discounts to better align with cash caps, so that they start at 5% of the property value and increase by 1% each year up to the maximum discount of 15% of the property value or the cash cap (whichever is lower).
• exempt new social homes from the scheme for 35 years.
• exempt properties in designated rural areas and council homes for market rent from the scheme.
• prevent tenants who have previously benefitted from the scheme from exercising the RtB (with some limited exemptions).
• increase the period of time in which local authorities have the right to ask for repayment of all or part of the discount on the sale of property from five years to 10 years.
• extend the period in which local authorities have the right of first refusal when a property previously bought under the RtB is sold so that it applies in perpetuity.
• align the Right to Acquire (RtA) scheme for housing association tenants with the reformed RtB, to ensure consistency between the two schemes. The RtA discounts would remain unchanged.

Part 1 would also introduce a new requirement for private registered providers of social housing to give the local authority and other registered providers in the local area a minimum of four weeks’ notice before selling a home, maximising opportunities to retain homes in the social sector.

Part 2 of the bill (clause 13) would require the Secretary of State to conduct and publish a review of the operation and effectiveness of the shared ownership scheme in England, together with a statement setting out any proposed actions in response to its findings. The review must be published within 12 months of Royal Assent. This clause was added at report stage in the House of Lords (see below).

Part 3 of the bill (clause 14) would strengthen protections for social housing tenants who are victims of domestic abuse. Protections include:

• stronger powers for landlords to enable them to take possession of a property where domestic abuse has taken place without the requirement for the victim to leave
• a new mechanism to facilitate the transfer of the joint tenancy into the sole name of the victim, where they want to remain in the home
• powers to enable the courts to make an order to provide the victim with suitable alternative accommodation, where it is not appropriate for the victim to remain in a home and the landlord has this accommodation available
• a safeguard to ensure that perpetrators are unable to unilaterally end a joint tenancy in retaliation against possession action until proceedings have been concluded

Part 4 of the bill (clauses 15 to 19) would streamline the housing consents process, so local authorities would no longer need to seek Secretary of State consent when taking certain actions to manage their social housing stock. It would also repeal unimplemented provisions from the Housing and Planning Act 2016, specifically those requiring local authorities to:

• sell higher-value vacant social homes
• grant fixed-term tenancies, instead of lifetime secure tenancies
• charge higher rents to social tenants with higher incomes

Part 5 of the bill (clauses 20 to 23) contains the technical clauses related to the bill, including territorial extent, commencement and powers to make consequential provisions.

The bill’s provisions would apply only to England.

More on the bill

A House of Lords Library briefing (May 2026) gives policy background to the bill, further detail on the bill’s provisions, and a summary of stakeholder reaction.

The bill, together with its explanatory notes (which provide a clause-by-clause explanation of the bill), impact assessment and delegated powers memorandum are available on the Parliament website: Social Housing Bill [HL].

On 24 July 2026, the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) rated the bill’s impact assessment ‘not fit for purpose’ based on its scrutiny of the evidence and analysis supporting the case for why regulation is necessary.

The government has published a Guide to the Social Housing Bill (15 June 2026), which also explains the background to the bill and its provisions.

The Commons Library briefing on The Right to Buy scheme in England provides more detailed background information about the scheme.

The bill in the House of Lords

The bill was introduced to the House of Lords on 14 May 2026.

Second reading in the House of Lords

The bill received its second reading on 1 June 2026 where the debate was wide-ranging and the bill was largely welcomed. Issues raised during the debate included:

• concerns that the bill’s scope was too limited to address the scale of need for genuinely affordable housing for rent
• questions about why there were no measures to help improve the condition of existing homes, including through estate and neighbourhood regeneration
• opposing views on the RtB reforms - ranging from Conservative peers who largely disagreed with the reforms, to others (including Labour, Liberal Democrat, and crossbench peers) calling for reforms to go further, such as extending the qualifying period beyond ten years, strengthening local exemptions and abolishing the scheme altogether
• concerns about how the domestic abuse provisions would operate in practice

In closing the debate, the Lords Minister for Housing and Local Government, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, said the bill’s focus was deliberately narrow and should be considered alongside the government’s wider housing programme. She referred to the £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP), the ten-year rent settlement, support for council housebuilding, the government’s review of the statutory social housing allocations guidance, and separate reforms relating to housing quality and safety.

Committee stage

Committee stage took place over three sittings on 15 and 17 June 2026. Members of the House of Lords tabled 145 amendments to the bill at committee stage, many of which were ‘probing’ amendments. The government proposed five amendments, which were all agreed without a division. These were:

• Amendment 4 inserted a new clause to prevent the Right to Buy (RtB) from being exercised if any person to whom the right belongs, or their spouse, civil partner or co-habitee, already owns other residential property in or outside the UK. The new clause includes an exemption in cases involving domestic abuse and irretrievable relationship breakdown. Amendment 6 was consequential to amendment 4. Amendment 122 would provide for the new clause to commence two months after Royal Assent.
  
  
• Amendment 67 was a technical amendment to insert a new clause to clarify that the affirmative procedure applies to regulations made under section 126A of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (in relation to the duty of registered providers of social housing to designate a health and safety lead for the provider). Amendment 50 was consequential to amendment 67.

No opposition amendments were made to the bill.

Debates during the three committee sittings focused on the following issues:

• the effects of extending the RtB qualifying period from three to 10 years, including whether existing secure tenants should be protected from the change
  
  
• reductions to RtB discounts, including concerns that the proposed 5% starting discount was too small
  
  
• whether additional data collection, monitoring and reporting requirements were needed to evaluate the impact of the bill's reforms and assess whether they were delivering their intended policy outcomes
  
  
• making better use of existing social housing stock, including through tighter allocation restrictions, estate regeneration, bringing empty homes back into use, improving stock management and tackling tenancy fraud
  
  
• concerns about disposals of social housing in rural areas and proposals for additional protections to prevent the loss of stock
  
  
• ensuring adapted and accessible homes were identified and retained within the social housing sector

Report stage

The bill had its report stage on 20 July 2026.

Members tabled 92 amendments to the bill at report stage. 46 government amendments were agreed, one opposition amendment was agreed on a division, and one opposition amendment was disagreed on a division.

Right to buy

Amendment 1 and amendment 2 sought to extend the transition period for commencing the provisions relating to the qualifying period for the Right to Buy (RtB). Speaking to the amendment, Lord Jamieson (Con) said existing tenants had a legitimate expectation that after three years they would become eligible for the RtB, and it would be unfair to retrospectively change this qualifying period. (c899) In response, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage said applying the 10-year qualifying period only to new tenancies would undermine the bill’s objectives. (c905) Amendment 1 was disagreed on a division (content 162; not content 220) and amendment 2 was not moved.

Shared ownership

Peers spoke extensively about the challenges faced by many shared owners, including: ongoing affordability, service charges, ‘staircasing’, lease extensions, and difficulties selling. Amendment 25, tabled by Lord Young of Cookham (Con) and supported by the Liberal Democrats, would insert a new clause in the bill requiring the Secretary of State to conduct and publish a review of the operation and effectiveness of shared ownership, within 12 months of Royal Assent. Baroness Taylor of Stevenage opposed the amendment, explaining that the government was already taking action to improve shared ownership, and wanted to ensure that any further changes did not undermine confidence in the sector. (c932-c933) Amendment 25 was agreed on a division (content 232; not content 146) and the new clause was added to the bill.

Domestic abuse

Government amendments 30 to 75 were agreed without a division. The amendments expanded the bill’s domestic abuse provisions to apply to those “personally connected to” the victim-survivor, as defined in section 2 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

Ministerial commitments

During the debate, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage committed to:

• introduce a power to enable the criteria for designating rural areas to be set out in regulations, and to explore allowing local authorities to self-designate where they meet the criteria (c907)
  
  
• table a future amendment to extend the minimum four-week notice period that private registered providers of social housing would need to give other providers before selling a home (c918)
  
  
• consider whether social housing providers should be required to offer a new secure tenancy to a tenant who had followed police advice to move out of their social housing due to threats of targeted youth or gang violence (c944)
  
  
• consider whether social landlords should be given a statutory right of access to properties to fulfil their statutory safety duties. The Minister noted this would impact tenants’ rights of quiet enjoyment to their homes and engage European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) article 8 rights (cc944-945)
  
  
• address the barriers that victims and survivors of domestic abuse with debt face when applying for social housing, as part of the government’s update to the statutory guidance on social housing allocations (c945)

Third reading

No amendments were made to the bill when it had its third reading on 1 September 2026.