Social Housing Bill [HL]

The Social Housing Bill aims to protect and expand social housing stock by tightening Right to Buy/Acquire eligibility (raising the minimum period to 10 years, adjusting discounts, and providing a 35‑year exemption for new builds), extending processing time, exempting rural properties, reforming disposals, and requiring private providers to notify local authorities to help keep homes in the social sector. It also strengthens protections for domestic abuse victims, including suspending a perpetrator’s ability to end a joint tenancy, creating a new mandatory possession ground, and enabling a court to transfer a joint tenancy to the victim to prevent homelessness. Additionally, it streamlines housing consents and other technical provisions, with the government asserting the measures are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Social Housing Bill [HL], introduced in May 2026, aims to protect social housing stock and strengthen tenant protections by reforming the Right to Buy and Right to Acquire (raising the qualifying period to 10 years, reforming discounts, and introducing a 35-year new-build exemption), and requiring private providers to notify local authorities before disposals to keep homes in the social sector. It also strengthens protections for domestic abuse victims in social housing (including tenancy transfers in joint tenancies and new grounds for possession) and streamlines housing consents by repealing unimplemented earlier provisions. The Bill applies to England and Wales (with application in England), contains phased commencement, and a cost assessment is being prepared.

The Social Housing Bill 2026 overhauls the right-to-buy by raising the qualifying period to ten years and adding complex rules for people who have previously exercised the right (including domestic abuse and changes in living arrangements), with a new power to suspend fraudulently made claims. It also tightens the discount regime (higher discounts linked to the length of the qualifying period, up to a maximum) and adds exemptions for certain properties such as National Parks and areas of natural beauty, plus new rules around new-build or market‑rent homes. The Bill further strengthens domestic abuse protections in tenancy law (including transfer of tenancy to victims) and introduces wide-ranging reforms to social housing disposals and related regulation across multiple Acts, with separate provisions for England and Wales.