Government tables Social Housing Bill amendments doubling disposal notice to eight weeks

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has tabled a package of government amendments to the Social Housing Bill for Commons Committee stage, including doubling the notice period before a social home can be sold out of the regulated sector.

A factsheet published on 21 October 2026 sets out the changes, which MHCLG grouped under three themes: tenant protections, homelessness and protection of social housing stock.

The Bill was introduced in the House of Lords in May 2026 and had its second reading on 1 June. It has now moved to the Commons.

Protecting stock

As introduced, the Bill gave councils a four-week period after a private registered provider notified them of a planned disposal before the sale could go ahead. The amendment extends that period to eight weeks.

MHCLG said the longer notice period would give local authorities and other registered providers more time to consider buying the home. Private registered providers will also have to say what type of rent the property was previously let at when they notify a disposal.

The Bill already gives councils a stronger right of first refusal to buy back former Right to Buy properties, according to MHCLG.

Rural Right to Buy

A second amendment allows councils to designate eligible rural areas themselves for Right to Buy exemption purposes, where those areas meet the rural criteria. The criteria remain a population density of no more than two persons per hectare and a population of 3,000 or fewer.

Regulations will set out the criteria and the self-designation process, MHCLG said.

The change follows the government's announcement on 28 April 2026, before the Bill was introduced, that it would review how Right to Buy applies in rural areas. The Bill as introduced already exempts rural properties from the scheme, which the government's guide says will include homes in National Parks.

Gavin Smart, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said at the time of the April announcement that "CIH welcomes the government's continued focus on reforming Right to Buy".

Duty to Offer

For private registered providers of social housing, the homelessness amendments include a new Duty to Offer. It will let a local housing authority refer a homeless household owed the main housing duty to a private registered provider, which must then offer suitable accommodation unless it has good reason not to.

The Secretary of State will set out in regulations what counts as a reasonable period for making an offer and when a provider has good reason not to make one. MHCLG said it would work with stakeholders to develop those regulations.

New duties on specified public bodies to identify homelessness and act on it will replace the existing Duty to Refer, MHCLG said. A separate amendment lets the government specify circumstances in which a local housing authority may not refer a veteran's homelessness case to another authority on local connection grounds.

Tenant protections

On domestic abuse, the amendment means the existence of a relevant protective order will be enough for a court to decide whether a possession order against a perpetrator is reasonable. MHCLG said about 15,000 households in England had to find a new social home because of domestic abuse in the previous year.

In an MHCLG statement published on 1 June 2026, the day of the Bill's second reading, Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: "Victims of domestic abuse have faced an impossible choice – stay in danger or make themselves homeless."

The government is also amending the Bill to modernise the Right to Manage, the statutory route for council tenants to take on management of housing services. The amendments allow a tiered governance model for tenant management organisations to be introduced through regulations, and give courts a last-resort power to remove officers, transfer functions or end agreements where a tenant management organisation has seriously failed.

Background

The wider Bill raises the minimum tenancy for Right to Buy eligibility from three to 10 years, exempts newly built social and affordable homes from the scheme for 35 years, and resets discounts so they start at 5% of property value and rise to a maximum of 15%. Maximum cash discounts were earlier cut to between £16,000 and £38,000 depending on area, and councils can keep all sale receipts.

MHCLG said the November 2024 cut in cash discounts is expected to reduce Right to Buy sales by about 25,000 over five years.

The department has said more than two million homes have been sold under Right to Buy since 1980, and that between 2012 and 2025 council home sales far outstripped replacements.

Right to Buy, 2012 to 2025	Homes
Council homes sold	133,000
Replacements	51,000

MHCLG said 1.3 million households are on council waiting lists and more than 175,000 children are living in temporary accommodation.

The government's overview of the Bill, published on 14 May 2026, says it is intended to protect social housing stock and give affordable housing providers clarity and confidence to build. The amendments now go before the Commons Committee considering the Bill.