England introduces bill to evict domestic abusers and overhaul right-to-buy scheme

A new bill in England is set to grant social housing landlords the power to evict domestic abuse perpetrators without forcing victims to leave their homes. The legislation, which will undergo its second reading in the House of Lords on Monday, also seeks to overhaul the right-to-buy scheme by increasing the minimum tenancy period from three to 10 years. The government stated the bill aims to address the long-term decline in social housing stock and provide greater security for vulnerable tenants.

Currently, social housing landlords can only evict a perpetrator after the victim has moved out. In cases of joint tenancies, victims are often forced to end the tenancy entirely to secure safety, risking homelessness. The new bill closes a legal loophole that allows abusers to trigger the early termination of joint tenancies during their own eviction proceedings. If passed, courts will be empowered to transfer joint tenancies to the victim’s sole name or require landlords to provide suitable alternative accommodation.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government noted that approximately 15,000 families in England were forced to find new social housing last year due to domestic abuse. The Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance has welcomed the bill as an important and long-overdue step forward, recognising the systemic failures that have left survivors in limbo.

Under the proposed changes, the right-to-buy policy, originally introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government, would require tenants to wait 10 years before qualifying to purchase their homes. Newly built social homes would be protected from right-to-buy for 35 years, with exemptions for hard-to-replace rural homes. Councils will also gain a stronger right of first refusal to buy back properties previously sold under the scheme, helping public sector landlords recover lost stock.

The bill also removes outdated and unimplemented requirements from the 2016 Housing and Planning Act, including rules that mandated councils to sell high-value homes, offer fixed-term tenancies, and charge higher rents to higher-income tenants. Prime Minister Keir Starmer cited underfunding, systemic failure, and the sale of social housing at huge discounts without replacement as key drivers for the government’s housing agenda, pledging the biggest increase in social and affordable homes for a generation.