{"id":614570,"date":"2026-06-01T02:23:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/614570\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T02:23:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:23:20","slug":"new-bill-targets-domestic-abusers-and-overhauls-right-to-buy-in-england-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/614570\/","title":{"rendered":"New bill targets domestic abusers and overhauls right to buy in England | Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social housing landlords will be able to evict domestic abuse perpetrators under a new bill, which will also increase the length of tenancy required before residents qualify for the right-to-buy scheme from three to 10 years in England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The government said the bill, which will be debated in the House of Lords<\/a> on Monday, would fix \u201cthe long-term decline in social housing\u201d and offer new protections for social tenants who were subjected to domestic abuse.<\/p>\n

Its progress in parliament was welcomed by domestic abuse campaigners, such as the Domestic Abuse Housing<\/a> Alliance, who said it represented \u201can important and long overdue step forward\u201d. The bill is returning to parliament for its second reading, after being announced in King Charles\u2019s speech on 13 May.<\/p>\n

Last year, about 15,000 families in England were forced to find a new social home because of domestic abuse, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.<\/p>\n

The bill is intended to ensure that landlords and courts can evict perpetrators of domestic abuse from social housing without the victim having to leave their home first.<\/p>\n

At present, social housing landlords can evict a perpetrator only after their victim has moved out, and in joint tenancies, the only option for the victim is to end the tenancy entirely, possibly becoming homeless.<\/p>\n

If the bill passes its second reading and is given royal assent, social housing landlords will be able to remove abusers from their properties and courts will be able to transfer a joint tenancy to the victim\u2019s sole name or require the landlord to provide suitable alternative accommodation where appropriate.<\/p>\n

The bill also closes a legal loophole that allows domestic abusers to make their victims homeless, by ending a social housing joint tenancy early during their own eviction proceedings.<\/p>\n

The right to buy a social home after just three years as a tenant of a public sector landlord, a policy of Margaret Thatcher\u2019s government, is also being overhauled. Under the new rules, social housing tenants will have to wait 10 years, instead of three, before they can buy their home from a council or housing association.<\/p>\n

Newly built social homes would be protected for 35 years and \u201chard-to-replace rural homes\u201d would be exempt if the bill passes into legislation, the government said.<\/p>\n

Councils will also gain a stronger right of first refusal to buy back properties, to help public sector landlords recover homes already lost under right to buy.<\/p>\n

The government also said the bill would strip out \u201coutdated and unimplemented requirements\u201d from the 2016 Housing and Planning Act to offer social housing providers \u201cthe certainty they need to build for the long term\u201d. This includes rules that required councils to sell high-value homes, offer fixed-term tenancies and charge higher rents to higher-income tenants.<\/p>\n

Writing for the Guardian on Monday, Keir Starmer will say: \u201cFamilies were left in limbo on waiting lists for years \u2026 and incredibly, domestic abuse survivors found themselves forced out of their homes because landlords lacked the powers to make their abuser the one who must leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this is right or fair: and it\u2019s been brought about by underfunding, systemic failure and a lack of building, particularly when it comes to social housing, where too much of the stock was sold off at huge discounts without ever being replaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why when this government came into power, we pledged the biggest increase in social and affordable homes for a generation \u2026 We want everyone, no matter their background or circumstance, to have a secure place of their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline<\/a> on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women\u2019s Aid<\/a>. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service<\/a> is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the domestic violence hotline<\/a> is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social housing landlords will be able to evict domestic abuse perpetrators under a new bill, which will also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-614570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}