Topics
Announcement
1. On 12 February 2025, the Minister for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook, announced a forthcoming consultation on regulatory reforms in the supported housing sector.1‘Social and Affordable Housebuilding and Supported Housing: Next Steps – Hansard – UK Parliament’ accessed 13 February 2025
Consultation Publication Date
2. This consultation, set to be published on 20 February 2025, will include proposals for national supported housing standards and a locally-led licensing regime. The Government is committed to ensuring a balanced and proportionate approach to these reforms, aiming to improve accommodation standards and empower local authorities to oversee the sector effectively.
Consultation on Regulatory Reforms
3. Minister Pennycook stated:
“We are today announcing that on 20 February 2025, we will publish a consultation on a number of the regulatory reforms contained within it. These include proposals for national supported housing standards and a locally-led licensing regime to give local authorities the powers they need to effectively manage the supported housing markets in their areas.
We are committed to taking a sensible and proportionate approach to the introduction of these planned reforms and we look forward to receiving feedback through the consultation from good providers, local authorities, and residents to ensure we get things right.”
Government Commitment to Improved Standards
4. The Minister emphasised the Government’s determination to enhance supported housing standards:
“This Government are determined to improve the quality of accommodation in the supported housing sector and assisting local authorities to drive up standards in their areas. That is why we are committed to implementing the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023.”
Key Issues Identified
5. The Minister outlined the central problem:
“While there are many excellent supported housing providers undertaking crucial work to help vulnerable people get back on their feet and improve their lives, there are still significant numbers of unscrupulous providers who fail to provide high-quality accommodation to their tenants and a minority of rogue exempt accommodation operators who exploit gaps in the existing regulatory regime to profiteer.”
Focus on Non-Commissioned Exempt Accommodation
6. The Minister underscored the impact of substandard non-commissioned exempt accommodation:
“The impact of poor-quality, non-commissioned exempt accommodation on vulnerable individuals can be devastating, whether it is the physical and mental consequences of living in squalid conditions, the risks that arise from the absence of effective supervision and safeguarding arrangements, the money gouged from hard-up residents through service charge costs that are ineligible for housing benefit purposes, or simply the inability to sustain an exempt accommodation tenancy, or to move on from one, because of a lack of care or support.”
How to Prepare
7. Preparation steps for providers:
- Review current operations against potential new standards
- Gather input from staff and residents
- Analyse alignment with local authority housing strategies and
- Allocate resources to consultation responses.
8. The consultation presents an opportunity for providers to contribute to the development of new sector standards. Engagement with this process will be crucial for those seeking to operate within the new regulatory framework.
(c) Martin Ward | Philip Parnham 2025
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