Labour Wants Councils to Place Homeless Households Directly With Housing Associations
Angela Rayner will tell the Labour conference that housing associations in England must accept council referrals of homeless households unless they can provide reasonable grounds for refusal.
The measure is presented as part of a drive for greater public control of housing in England, according to advance details of the speech The Guardian. Local authorities, which hold the legal duty to help homeless people, would gain a new power to refer a homeless household directly to housing associations and other providers to be housed. Think of it as a fast lane on a crowded waiting list. Those landlords, many of them not-for-profit bodies known formally as private registered providers, could reject a referral only with reasonable grounds.
A second part of the plan deals with sales of existing stock. Housing associations would have to give councils 60 days' notice before selling a property. The pause is meant to give councils or other social housing providers time to bid for the home. The measures would make it easier for councils to buy up social rented homes being sold by private registered providers.
Prevention work would also spread beyond housing teams. The government would place a new collaboration duty on public services such as health services and local authorities to report a crisis that could lead to homelessness. The duty would create an earlier referral route before households reach statutory homelessness, the legal threshold that triggers council help.
The laws for these steps would come in the social housing bill, which is in the Commons. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published a press release titled 'Social Housing Bill to strengthen homelessness prevention and protect social housing stock' on 28 September 2026. The bill provides the legislative vehicle for the referral power, the sale notification rule and the collaboration duty.
Rayner will link the package to pressure in temporary accommodation. Almost 180,000 children are living in temporary accommodation. In her conference speech she will say greater public control of social housing is important and that she is committed to getting more council housing.
The announcement sits within a wider housing programme. The UK government has a target of 1.5 million new homes. Rayner told the BBC there is a slim chance the government will hit its 1.5 million new homes target, in comments reported on 13 September 2026 Yahoo News. She had previously promised Labour would create the biggest increase in affordable housing in a generation if it won power. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published a press release titled 'New reforms to bring more long-term empty homes back into use' on 27 September 2026, a press release on 26 September 2026 about a new first-time buyer scheme called Your First Home to be confirmed at Budget, and a press release on 25 September 2026 titled 'Boarded-up high streets brought back to life with £210m boost'. The Ministry is a ministerial department supported by 22 agencies and public bodies.
The broader context here is a shift from supply targets alone toward how existing social homes are allocated and kept. Direct referral with a reasonable-grounds test changes the balance between councils, which carry the homelessness duty, and providers, which manage much of the stock under separate governance. A 60-day notice window gives town halls a defined first look, though its effect will turn on price, available funds and how reasonable grounds are read in practice. The prevention duty pushes responsibility upstream to health and other services, where warning signs often appear first.
