King's Speech 2026: Social Housing Renewal Bill

Social Housing Renewal Bill

“My Ministers will bring forward legislation to increase long-term investment in social
housing”

● Everyone deserves to live in a decent, safe, secure and affordable home. Yet far
too many families in need of a social rented home are languishing on local
authority waiting lists, forced to struggle in the private rented sector or in
expensive temporary accommodation, driving up rents and housing benefit costs
in the process. At the same time, the ability and willingness of social housing
providers to invest in the building of new social rented homes is undermined by
the steady and significant loss of existing stock through the Right to Buy scheme.

● The Bill will protect much needed social housing stock, give affordable housing
providers the clarity and confidence they need to build more social homes, and
better protect tenants who are victims of domestic abuse by providing them with
greater security and stability. The Bill delivers on the manifesto commitments to
prioritise the building of new social rented homes and better protect our existing
stock. It builds on the funding and regulatory certainty that the Government has
provided to the sector and supports the five-step plan published in July 2025 to
deliver a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing.

What does the Bill do?

● The Bill has three core objectives. First, to protect much-needed social
housing stock and thereby incentivise the building of more social rented
homes. Second, to create a fairer system with greater protections for tenants
in instances of domestic abuse. Third, to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy
and give providers greater regulatory certainty so that they can invest in new
social and affordable homes with confidence.

● The Bill will:

Protect existing social housing stock and incentivising the building of
more social homes.

○ The Right to Buy scheme provides an important route for social
housing tenants to own their own homes. However, many of the homes
sold under the Right to Buy scheme have not been replaced. Not only

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 has this depleted much-needed stock, but it has also reduced the
motivation and confidence of councils to build, and restricted broader
investment in council housing. Measures in the Bill will increase the
eligibility requirement to 10 years, amend percentage discounts to
better align with new maximum cash discounts and exempt newly built
social housing for 35 years. The Bill will also ensure that councils and
other potential buyers are notified before social homes are sold to
maximise opportunities to retain stock.

Protect tenants who are victims of domestic abuse by providing them
with greater security and stability.

○ All social housing tenants deserve to live in decent homes, to be
treated with fairness and respect, and to have their problems resolved
quickly. Measures in the Bill will increase protections for victims of
domestic abuse to remain in their property away from their abuser or
move to suitable alternative accommodation.

Clarify the statute book and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, so
providers can invest in new social and affordable homes with
confidence.

○ The Bill will repeal unimplemented provisions from previous legislation
that would not have worked in the interests of tenants or providers.
These include requirements for local authorities to sell high-value
homes, grant flexible (fixed-term) tenancies, and to charge higher
income tenants higher rents. It will also reduce bureaucracy for
councils by streamlining housing consents.

Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will extend to England and Wales, but apply to England only.

Key facts

● The social housing sector plays a critical role in our housing system,
making up approximately 16 per cent of all households in England. It is
home to a large proportion of vulnerable groups, with 61 per cent of
households having at least one member with a long-term illness or disability,
and 50 per cent of households in the lowest income quintile (English Housing
Survey 2024-25).

● This country has not built enough social and affordable housing for
decades. Over 175,000 children are living in temporary accommodation, and
more than 1.3 million households are on local authority waiting lists for social

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 housing. Between 2015 and 2025, the number of households on local
authority housing registers increased by approximately 6.7 per cent (equating
to around 84,000 households) (Local Authority Housing Statistics open data:
2024-25).

● Social and affordable housing is critical to boosting housing supply
overall. Almost one in three of all new homes built in recent years are social
or affordable - in 2024-25, there were nearly 60,000 social and affordable new
build completions (Affordable Housing Supply in England: 2024-25). However,
the path to 1.5 million homes requires further growth in this sector and social
house building remains far below its peak in the 1950s and 1960s.

● Over two million tenants have bought their homes under the Right to
Buy scheme since its introduction in 1980, though much of this stock
has never been replaced and the threat of losing homes through the
scheme reduces the motivation and confidence of councils to build.
Between April 2012 and March 2025, there have been around 133,000
council Right to Buy sales with over 51,000 homes replaced over the same
period (Right to Buy sales and replacements, England: April 2024 to March
2025).

● In 2024-25, 39,410 households were considered homeless, or threatened with
homelessness, where the reason for the loss of their last settled home was
domestic abuse (Statutory Homelessness in England: Financial year
2024-25). The Bill will look to provide additional protections to those
individuals in the social housing sector.

● The Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, Kate
Henderson, said “At a time when 4.2 million people are in need of social
housing in England, we strongly support the Government’s aim to protect the
country’s social housing and welcome confirmation that Right to Buy will not
be extended to housing associations… The outcome from the various
measures the Government is taking should mean that the Right to Buy is a
much more sustainable scheme than it has been since 2012.”

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