The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act became law in August 2023. On this page, you will find an overview of the Act, consultations and our work on behalf of our members.
The government is consulting on how the Act will be implemented, and we have now submitted a full sector response to the first government consultation, which NHF members can read at the bottom of this page.
What is the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act?
The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 became law in August 2023. The Act gives the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government powers to:
- Introduce National Supported Housing Standards for England, which will provide minimum standards for both the property and the care or support provided in supported homes.
- Require English local authorities to create locally led supported accommodation licensing schemes.
- Introduce a strategic planning duty for local authorities, which will include collecting data on the supply of homes, a forecast of future need, and a delivery plan.
- Create a national expert advisory panel to monitor the sector, which will report to the Secretary of State.
At the NHF, we support the aim of the Act to tackle poor quality exempt accommodation, whilst being committed to helping good quality providers of vital services have their voices heard.
The consultation
On 20 February 2025, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published the first consultation on the implementation of the Act.
At the NHF, we support the aim of the Act to tackle poor quality exempt accommodation, whilst being committed to helping good quality providers of vital services have their voices heard.
All residents should have a safe, good quality home and support service based on their needs. We support the aim of the Act to tackle any poor-quality exempt accommodation and improve standards for residents.
However, the proposed regulations come at a time when the supported housing sector is already struggling to provide a home to everyone with a support need, and demand is only rising. We’re calling for more support from the government, alongside amendments to the proposals.
The NHF is a named statutory consultee for the Act alongside local authorities, and we have remained committed to using this position to ensure NHF members can help shape the new system.
Catch up on our webinar
The NHF hosted a webinar on 4 March which was attended by MHCLG and DWP.
Representatives from the government discussed the consultation, and NHF members had an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on the consultation.
Watch here
Our response
We have now submitted a full sector response to the first government consultation. In our response, we highlighted the key concerns of supported and older persons’ housing providers, including:
- The need to close loopholes in regulation and support the intention of the Act to improve standards in supported housing. All residents of supported housing should live in high quality homes and receive support services that are right for them.
- The regulations must be deliverable if we are to maintain the supply of supported housing. If introduced as proposed, some of our members will likely have to reduce the number of supported homes they provide. We're calling for pragmatic adjustments to the proposals to avoid putting the supply of supported housing at risk.
- A national framework is needed to ensure consistency and reduce the burden on good quality provision. This will avoid a situation where meeting differing requirements could lead to different policies, procedures and requirements of staff within the same organisation, causing cost and time burdens.
- There should be a risk-based approach with an understanding that rogue providers are attracted to the sector by high rents. We’re advocating for an exemption for older persons' housing, because no concerns have been identified in this part of the sector and its rents are low. It provides a preventative service that keeps people in their homes and out of hospital or residential care, both services that come with higher costs.
- There should not be a duplication of regulation as this is burdensome and costly for councils and housing providers. Information sharing between local authorities and existing regulators and passporting schemes will increase enforcement efficiency.
- There should be more flexibility around who should be the licensee. The proposals around the licensee present a significant risk for any Registered Provider who has a managing agent providing support from their homes. This is another issue that could cause providers to close schemes.
- The definition of a scheme should be revised to reflect the different realities of supported housing. The currently proposed definition of a scheme will present significant administrative and cost barriers for supported housing providers.
- Licence fees should be set nationally, proportionate to the number of homes, and capped. Otherwise, high fee costs may be passed back to local authorities, onto residents or absorbed by housing associations, threatening their survival.
- There should not be a new planning use class for supported housing. The planning system already creates delays for the development of much needed supported housing. This includes slow, inefficient planning departments that do not understand supported housing and local opposition to the development of supported housing.
- The effective administration of the Housing Benefit system is essential. The Act provides an opportunity to create a more efficient Housing Benefit system where councils can reduce Housing Benefit paid out to poor quality or exploitative landlords, while providing financial stability to services that meet the new standards.
- We believe that further defining care, support and supervision for Housing Benefit purposes is not needed, given the new support standards. The proposal to add a threshold to how much support a person requires does not acknowledge the fluctuating nature of support needs.
- The cost burden of the proposals will reduce the ability to deliver frontline services, and funding is needed for housing associations as well as councils to pay for the operational and administrative changes.
NHF members can read our full response using the links below. In our response, we go into more details on each of the above points.
Next steps
The government will respond to the consultation responses it receives, and we will update this page when that happens.
The government will be consulting again on the implementation of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act. We will be in touch with NHF members when we know more about the timelines for this.
NHF members can download our response, two briefings and the consultation questions using the links below.
If you have any questions or feedback on our consultation response or next steps in general, please email us.
Join the National Supported and Older Persons’ Housing Network
Join our National Supported and Older Persons’ Housing Network to feed into the NHF’s response and help shape our work. Please contact our admin team to join the mailing list.
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