Laws and regulations

Encouraging the residential mobility of social housing tenants: England’s Right to Move policy (United Kingdom) 

In 2015 the UK government passed the Right to Move statutory guidance under the new Allocation of Housing Regulations for England. This guarantee removed residency or queuing requirements for social housing units if prospective tenants move to take up employment or an apprenticeship. For this, the previous ‘hardship’ criteria have been extended to those moving for work. Local authorities are since required to offer a minimum of 1% of their housing stock under the Right to Move scheme.   

Previously, prospective council or housing association tenants often needed to sacrifice their rent-controlled tenancy in order to take up work elsewhere, effectively disincentivising employment as waiting lists were often long and private rental options too expensive for these households. The new regulations thus remove rent-benefit and housing affordability related barriers from employment related moves and encourage residential mobility within the social housing sector and across districts. It is not clear whether the Right to Move programme has catalysed moves between districts and lowered some of the mobility barriers.   

More information:

• OECD Social housing: A key part of past and future housing policy Report. Sources: https://www.oecd.org/social/social-housing-policy-brief-2020.pdf , www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/967/pdfs/uksi_20150967_en.pdf ,  www.gov.uk/government/news/new-support-for-social-tenants-who-want-to-work