The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act

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 and the DWP published a joint consultation on the implementation of the Act. The consultation is seeking views on:

The National Supported Housing Standards.
The details of the locally led licensing regime.
A new planning use class for supported housing.
A definition of care, support and supervision in Housing Benefit regulations.
A proposal to link Housing Benefit with standards and licensing.

We’re helping our members shape the details of the new regulations through the consultation process. 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.

Government representatives discussed the consultation, and NHF members had an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on the consultation.

Watch here

Next steps

Through the consultation period, we’ll be supporting our members to respond through policy briefings, member meetings, webinars and roundtables. We also want to ensure that our consultation response fully reflects the views of the sector and will be hosting a series of roundtables to hear NHF members' feedback directly.

NHF members can download our member briefing on the consultation using the link below. We want to hear your feedback on the measures outlined in the consultation to inform our response.

We will also be hosting a series of roundtables where NHF members will be invited to give feedback to MHCLG and DWP on the consultation and its implementation. If you would like to join, please email our team using the contact details below.

Join the National Supported and Older Persons’ Housing Network

Our National Supported and Older Persons’ Housing Network will be meeting on 28 March to discuss the consultation, and feed into the NHF’s response. Please contact our admin team to join the mailing list.

Join the mailing list

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Who to speak to

Suzannah Young, Policy Leader

SHROAconsultation@housing.org.uk