The government has finally acted on supported housing
Next comes the hard part…
A long time coming
It has taken longer than it should have. For years, a minority of rogue providers were able to exploit inconsistent local regulation, delivering poor-quality accommodation and inadequate support while drawing down exempt rents without serious challenge. This has damaged residents, commissioners, and (through sector reputation) many organisations working hard to do the right thing.
The government’s response to the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 consultation, published in April 2026, is an attempt to put that right. We have now had time to read it carefully, discuss it with colleagues, and test it against our pipeline of schemes. Our view is cautiously optimistic.
The reforms are broadly right
The centrepiece of the new framework is a national licensing regime covering all supported housing where residents are eligible to claim exempt rent through Housing Benefit. There will be National Supported Housing Standards, a fit and proper person test for licence holders, and a dedicated planning use class for supported housing. We were particularly pleased with the planning use class change, as it was one of our key proposals submitted to the consultation process.
Taken together, these are the most significant structural changes to the sector in a generation, and the direction of travel is correct. A consistent licensing regime raises the floor for everyone. National standards give commissioners, providers and developers a shared reference point for quality where none previously existed. And a proper planning use class should, over time, make the planning process less arbitrary for local authorities, who have in the past occasionally struggled to know quite what to make of our own specialised supported housing applications.
For those who have spent years working to high standards without a formal framework to point to, much of this is overdue vindication. The case for proper regulation was always obvious. It is good that the government has now made it.
But implementation is everything
The harder question is whether good policy will become good practice. Here, the grounds for optimism are less clear-cut.
Local housing authorities will administer the new licensing regime, but supported housing has never sat neatly within a single council department. Housing teams will lead on licensing, adult social care teams typically commission the care and support, and planning departments will handle new use class applications. In two-tier areas, where district and county councils still operate separately, these functions can sit in entirely different organisations. That fragmentation has always been one of the quiet reasons why supported housing is harder to deliver than it should be. The new framework does not automatically resolve it.
The government’s own reorganisation programme to replace two-tier structures with unitary authorities should help over time, but that process is incomplete and uneven.
The government says these reforms must be proportionate and must not create unnecessary burdens on good providers. That is the right instinct. Whether it survives contact with reality, in licensing authorities simultaneously finding their feet while managing competing departmental pressures, is a different matter.
There is also the supply question, which these reforms do not fully resolve. Research by the National Housing Federation puts the need at more than 167,000 additional supported homes by 2040. That’s a 33% increase on current provision. Current delivery rates are nowhere near that trajectory. Regulation that raises standards is necessary and welcome. Regulation that inadvertently deters good providers or slows delivery would be a serious own goal. The two objectives of more homes and better homes are not in conflict, but they will require active management to deliver together.
What this means in practice
The licensing regime effectively formalises what responsible SSH development already looks like: genuine commissioner engagement, credible and sustainable care arrangements, proper needs assessment, and housing designed around the people who will live in it. Schemes built on these principles should have a great deal to gain from the clarity the new regime provides.
For developers entering the sector for the first time, the message is equally plain. The bar has been raised formally and permanently. The questions that responsible developers have always needed to ask (about care delivery, commissioning relationships, design standards and financial resilience) are now regulatory requirements, not optional good practice. That is a positive development, even if it makes the early stages of a scheme even more demanding.
There’s still time to get things right
The government deserves credit for acting. The sector deserves credit for engaging constructively with a consultation that asked 93 questions and received nearly 600 responses.
Draft regulations are expected to be consulted on in late 2026, with the licensing regime unlikely to come into force before mid-2027.
There’s still time to get this right. It would be a shame to waste it.