08 May 2026 15 min read

SHROA Confirmed, Section 21 Gone, and a DWP Lifeline

PART ONE: TOP 5 WEEKLY ROUNDUP

STORY 1: Government Publishes Response to Supported Housing Regulation Consultation

The government has published its response to the supported housing regulation consultation, setting out the regulatory framework that will govern exempt accommodation under the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023. The response confirms the direction of travel on the SHROA licensing regime — including the scope of providers who will require a licence, the standards against which they will be assessed, and the role of local authorities as licensing bodies. Devonshires, one of the sector's leading housing law firms, has published analysis of the response. This is the most significant single policy document the sector has seen since SHROA received Royal Assent in November 2023, and every provider of supported exempt accommodation in England needs to engage with it.

Sources: Devonshires / MHCLG (6 May 2026) https://insights.devonshires.com/post/102mrk7/government-publishes-response-to-supported-housing-regulation-consultation

STORY 2: No-Fault Eviction Ban Now in Force

The abolition of Section 21 "no-fault" evictions under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 came into force on 1 May 2026. From that date, landlords — including supported housing providers using assured shorthold tenancies — can no longer serve a Section 21 notice to recover possession without a statutory ground. All possession proceedings must now proceed under Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988, using a mandatory or discretionary ground. Devonshires has launched a dedicated Renters' Rights Act hub to help providers navigate the new landscape. For supported housing operators, the practical question is urgent: how do you lawfully recover possession from a resident whose behaviour or circumstances make continued occupation untenable, without the fallback of a Section 21?

Sources: Inside Housing / Devonshires (1–2 May 2026) https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/no-fault-eviction-ban-now-in-force-under-renters-rights-act-96889 https://insights.devonshires.com/post/102mrlz/devonshires-launches-renters-rights-act-hub

STORY 3: DWP Confirms New Earned Income Disregards for Housing Benefit in Supported Housing from Autumn 2026

The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed it will introduce new earned income disregards for Housing Benefit claimants in supported housing from Autumn 2026. The change means that a proportion of earned income will be disregarded when calculating Housing Benefit entitlement, potentially improving the financial position of working residents in supported accommodation and removing a disincentive to employment that has long been a concern in the sector. The announcement has direct implications for provider income modelling and for the design of support programmes aimed at moving residents toward greater economic independence. Full implementation details are awaited but providers should begin assessing the likely impact on their resident profiles.

Source: DWP via MSN / Google Alerts

STORY 4: Crime and Policing Act 2026 Receives Royal Assent

The Crime and Policing Act 2026 has received Royal Assent, bringing into law new provisions on anti-social behaviour, closure orders, and related housing management powers. For supported housing providers, the Act's ASB provisions are directly relevant: the sector disproportionately manages residents whose behaviour generates complaints, and the interaction between housing management powers, support obligations, and criminal justice interventions is a persistent operational challenge. Devonshires has published an initial analysis of the Act's implications. Providers should review their ASB policies and procedures in light of the new powers, and consider how the Act's closure order provisions interact with their obligations to vulnerable residents.

Source: Devonshires (6 May 2026) https://insights.devonshires.com/post/102mrsn/royal-assent-received-crime-and-policing-act-2026

STORY 5: Non-Tenants Gain Right to Complain to Housing Ombudsman

The Housing Ombudsman's jurisdiction has been extended to allow complaints from people who are not direct tenants — including family members, advocates, carers, and others with a legitimate interest in how a social landlord has acted. The change, reported by Inside Housing on 6 May, significantly broadens the accountability landscape for supported housing providers. In a sector where residents may have limited capacity to make complaints on their own behalf, the extension of complaint rights to third parties means that providers' handling of cases involving vulnerable adults will now be more exposed to external scrutiny than at any previous point. Robust complaint-handling procedures are no longer optional infrastructure — they are a regulatory necessity.

Source: Inside Housing (6 May 2026) https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/non-tenants-handed-power-to-complain-to-watchdog-over-social-housing-96904

This is a strong week — the SHROA consultation response analysis, the Section 21 ban going live, and the DWP income disregards announcement are the three standout stories. The RSH assessments carry over from the previous issue so I'll flag that and exclude them to avoid repetition. Let me produce the full brief.

SUPPORTED HOUSING BRIEFING — ISSUE BRIEF

Week ending 7 May 2026

Note: The RSH triple assessment story (Westmoreland, Bespoke, Portus) was the lead item in last week's Issue #5 and is excluded from this roundup to avoid repetition. It warrants a cross-reference in introductory copy.

PART ONE: TOP 5 WEEKLY ROUNDUP — FREE TIER

STORY 1: Government Publishes Response to Supported Housing Regulation Consultation

Sources: Devonshires / MHCLG (6 May 2026) https://insights.devonshires.com/post/102mrk7/government-publishes-response-to-supported-housing-regulation-consultation

STORY 2: No-Fault Eviction Ban Now in Force

STORY 3: DWP Confirms New Earned Income Disregards for Housing Benefit in Supported Housing from Autumn 2026

Source: DWP via MSN / Google Alerts

STORY 4: Crime and Policing Act 2026 Receives Royal Assent

Source: Devonshires (6 May 2026) https://insights.devonshires.com/post/102mrsn/royal-assent-received-crime-and-policing-act-2026

STORY 5: Non-Tenants Gain Right to Complain to Housing Ombudsman

Source: Inside Housing (6 May 2026) https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/non-tenants-handed-power-to-complain-to-watchdog-over-social-housing-9690

PART TWO: DEEP DIVES

DEEP DIVE 1

The SHROA Consultation Response: What the Government Has Actually Decided

The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 is law. Its licensing regime is not yet in force. Between those two facts sits a period of implementation design that has been, for most of the sector, characterised by uncertainty, speculation, and competing briefings about what the regime will actually look like in practice.

The publication of the government's formal consultation response changes that. This is the document that sets the definitive direction — not the lobbying positions of sector bodies, not the pre-consultation discussion papers, not the rumour about what MHCLG officials said at a stakeholder event. The response tells us what the government has decided, what remains subject to further work, and where the significant questions still lie.

What the Response Confirms

The scope of the licensing regime will track the full section 12 SHROA definition of supported housing. That definition is wider than many providers initially assumed. It is not limited to registered providers, not limited to organisations with existing regulatory relationships, and not limited to providers above a certain size threshold. If your organisation provides accommodation to people with support needs, and Housing Benefit is paid in relation to that accommodation, you are — unless you fall within one of the licensing exemptions — in scope.

Six categories of exemption have been confirmed. Almshouses are exempted — a significant outcome for the almshouse sector, which engaged intensively in the consultation process. The other exemptions cover accommodation provided by specified categories of regulated body. Providers who believe they fall within an exemption category should not assume: they should map their operating model against the exemption criteria carefully, because the exemption must be earned on the facts, not assumed on the basis of organisational type.

The fit and proper person test (FPPT) will be upgraded to a model closer to the CQC and Ofsted frameworks than to the relatively light-touch FPPT applied in HMO licensing. This matters enormously for governance. The directors, trustees, and named officers of licensing applicants will face scrutiny of a depth that most exempt accommodation providers have not previously experienced. Organisations with governance issues, with directors who have relevant adverse history, or with charity commission concerns on record need to address those issues now — not at the point of licence application.

A new Service Manager licensing condition will require providers to have a named, qualified individual responsible for the quality of support delivered. This is new infrastructure for many providers in the SEA sector, where the distinction between housing management and support management has often been blurred or collapsed into a single role.

The Housing Benefit linkage for England is confirmed: HB entitlement at the uncapped exempt rate will, in due course, be conditional on holding a valid licence. This is the financial lever that gives the licensing regime its teeth. A provider without a licence will lose the ability to charge exempt HB rates — effectively ending the operating model for most SEA providers. Commencement of this linkage is not expected before 2028, but the lead time is shorter than it sounds when governance remediation, staff qualification, and licence application preparation are factored in.

What Remains Deferred

The definition of Care, Support or Supervision (CSS) — the quality of provision that distinguishes exempt accommodation from ordinary private renting — has not been settled in the consultation response. This is the single most significant remaining uncertainty. The Turnbull framework (CH/150/2007, CH/4432/2006, R(H) 4/09) and the Bristol CC v AW real difference test have provided the operative standards for HB assessors to date. Whether the licensing framework adopts, adapts, or replaces those standards is still to be determined. Providers whose support model has been built around the Turnbull evidential framework should be engaged in the consultation processes around CSS definition as a matter of priority.

The planning use class — what some in the sector called the "nuclear option," which would have required supported housing to operate within a specific planning use class requiring positive planning consent — has not been introduced. A three-year statutory review is required instead. This is a significant reprieve, but not a permanent one. Providers who have been developing or acquiring properties without engaging with local planning authorities should treat the reprieve as time to engage proactively, not to continue without consideration.

What Providers Should Do Now

Three immediate actions are warranted. First, read the consultation response in full — not a summary, not a briefing from a trade body, the actual document. Second, map your operating model against the confirmed licensing criteria: scope, exemptions, FPPT, Service Manager condition. Third, begin the governance health check that the FPPT upgrade will require. The 2028 commencement date is not an excuse for delay — it is an outer boundary within which substantive preparation must be completed.

The licensing regime is coming. This consultation response tells you what it will look like. The providers who are ready when the switch is flipped will be the ones who treated this document as a call to action rather than a progress update.

DEEP DIVE 2

Section 21 Is Gone: What Supported Housing Providers Need to Do About Possession

On 1 May 2026, the legal landscape for residential possession in England changed permanently. Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 — the "no-fault" eviction mechanism that has underpinned landlord possession strategy for over three decades — is abolished. From that date, any landlord seeking to recover possession of a property let on an assured tenancy must establish a statutory ground under Schedule 2 to the 1988 Act.

For mainstream private landlords, the analysis is relatively straightforward, if uncomfortable. For supported housing providers, it is considerably more complex — because the legal framework within which supported housing occupancies sit is not straightforwardly the same as that which applies to ordinary private rented accommodation, and the analysis depends critically on how each provider has structured its occupancy arrangements.

The Tenure Question: Does Section 21 Abolition Apply to You?

The starting point is to identify what legal relationship your residents have with their accommodation. Not all supported housing occupancies are assured shorthold tenancies. Some are licences — arrangements under which the resident has permission to occupy but does not hold a tenancy. Some are assured tenancies with different security of tenure characteristics. Some, in the almshouse sector and in certain charitable provision models, are occupancy arrangements with no conventional landlord-tenant relationship at all.

Section 21 only ever applied to assured shorthold tenancies. Its abolition is therefore directly relevant only to providers whose residents hold ASTs. If your residents hold licences, the abolition of Section 21 changes nothing about your possession route — because Section 21 was never available to you in the first place. What it does change is the legislative context within which your occupancy documentation needs to sit, because the courts and HB assessors will now be scrutinising the substance of the relationship, not just its label. A document headed "Licence Agreement" that gives a resident exclusive possession of a defined space on fixed financial terms is a tenancy at law, whatever the paper calls it.

The Grounds-Based Regime: Where Supported Housing Providers Actually Stand

For those providers whose residents do hold ASTs — or whose documents, on close reading, create tenancies — the question is which grounds under Schedule 2 to the 1988 Act are available and realistic in a supported housing context.

The mandatory grounds (Ground 1, mortgage ground; Ground 2, lender possession; Grounds 3–7, specific tenancy types) will rarely be the operative mechanism for possession in a supported housing context. The practically relevant grounds are the discretionary grounds — principally Ground 8 (rent arrears, though this is mandatory for significant arrears), Ground 10 (some rent arrears), Ground 11 (persistent delay in paying rent), Ground 12 (breach of tenancy obligation), Ground 13 (deterioration of property or garden), Ground 14 (nuisance, annoyance, illegal or immoral use), and Ground 17 (false statement inducing grant of tenancy).

Ground 14 is the most frequently relevant in a supported housing context, because ASB and nuisance issues are the most common basis on which providers need to recover possession from residents whose behaviour makes continued occupation problematic. The ground is discretionary — the court must consider whether it is reasonable to make an order — which means that the quality of the provider's record-keeping, its evidence of support having been offered and the resident's response to it, and the robustness of its pre-action process will all be live issues in any contested possession hearing.

The Interaction with Support Obligations

Here is the dimension that distinguishes possession in a supported housing context from possession in an ordinary private rented context. The exempt accommodation model is built on the premise that the provider is offering care, support or supervision that makes a real difference to the resident's ability to maintain their tenancy. That premise has been used — correctly — to justify the uncapped HB rate. It also has an implication for possession: a provider that seeks possession of a vulnerable resident's home without having demonstrably engaged its support framework is exposed, both in the possession proceedings themselves and in potential Housing Ombudsman complaint proceedings.

This week's separate story about the extension of complaint rights to non-tenants sharpens that exposure further. A family member who considers that a provider sought possession of their relative's home without adequate support engagement can now bring a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman directly. Providers need to build into their possession protocols — as a mandatory pre-action step, not an optional consideration — a documented support review that demonstrates what has been offered, what has been accepted or declined, and what the outcome has been.

Practical Steps for Providers

Review all current occupancy documentation and identify which agreements create ASTs, which create licences, and which may be tenancies despite being called licences. For AST properties, ensure your possession procedure is Ground 14 (or the appropriate alternative ground) compliant, with robust pre-action evidence gathering. Train your housing management staff on the new landscape — particularly on the requirement to establish a ground and on the evidentiary requirements of Ground 14 in a supported housing context. And review your support review and ASB policy documentation to ensure the trail it creates is one you would be comfortable presenting to a county court or a Housing Ombudsman adjudicator.

Section 21 is gone. For supported housing providers who understood what they were doing with occupancy arrangements, the practical impact is manageable. For those who relied on Section 21 as a backstop without building robust grounds-based processes, the work starts now.

DEEP DIVE 3

DWP's Income Disregards for Supported Housing: A Small Change with Large Implications

The announcement that the DWP will introduce new earned income disregards for Housing Benefit claimants in supported housing from Autumn 2026 is, on its face, a modest technical adjustment to the HB calculation rules. In practice, it is one of the most significant positive signals the supported housing sector has received from central government in several years — and its implications run considerably deeper than a simple improvement to resident take-home pay.

What an Earned Income Disregard Does

Housing Benefit is means-tested. Where a claimant has earned income, that income is taken into account in the HB calculation, reducing the benefit payable. The effect, in practice, is that many residents of supported housing face a significant financial disincentive to taking employment: every pound they earn reduces their HB entitlement, often at a rate that makes part-time or entry-level employment economically irrational. The support cost element of their accommodation — the element that justifies the exempt rate — continues to be charged regardless of their employment status, but the HB that covers the rent and support charge drops as their earnings rise.

An earned income disregard changes this by excluding a defined amount of earned income from the HB calculation. If £200 per week is disregarded, a resident earning £200 per week from employment pays no income-related reduction in their HB until their earnings exceed that threshold. The effect is to make employment financially rational at income levels where it currently is not. The DWP has confirmed that the disregard will apply specifically to HB claimants in supported housing — this is not a general HB reform but a targeted intervention in the supported exempt accommodation context.

Why This Matters for Providers' Operating Models

The most immediate practical implication is for income modelling. If residents in your properties are currently deterred from employment by the HB tapers — and your keyworker evidence will tell you whether this is the case — the Autumn 2026 change should increase employment take-up among your resident population. That has consequences for the composition of your resident base, for void rates as residents who achieve employment sustainability progress toward independence, and for the HB income your properties generate.

The second implication is for support programme design. Many supported housing providers' support models are built around employment and independence as outcomes — Pathway Plans, keyworker support, life skills programmes. The income disregard removes the financial barrier that has historically undermined those programmes at the point of actual job-entry. Providers who have been frustrated by residents declining employment because "it doesn't pay" will find the landscape changes in Autumn. Support programmes need to be redesigned now to capitalise on that change — not reconfigured in October when the first working residents start asking their keyworkers what the disregard means for them.

The Regulatory Context: SHROA and the "Pathway" Principle

This announcement does not arrive in isolation. One of the consistent policy themes underlying SHROA — and underlying the government's broader approach to the supported housing sector since the 2022 White Paper — is that supported accommodation should be a pathway toward independence, not a permanent destination. The licensing regime's new Service Manager condition, the FPPT upgrade, the support quality standards being developed — all of these point toward a model of supported housing that actively works to move residents on, not to maintain them in a dependency relationship that generates stable HB income for the provider.

The income disregard is the financial complement to that regulatory direction. It removes a structural barrier to employment-based progression at precisely the moment the licensing framework is being designed to require providers to demonstrate meaningful support toward independence outcomes. Providers whose business model is built on long-term stable occupancy with minimal resident progression should be alert to the direction these two policy developments together indicate.

The Turnbull Framework Dimension

For providers operating under the Turnbull evidential framework for IHM or CSS, there is a further dimension. The Turnbull decisions — and the real difference test developed in Bristol CC v AW — require support that makes a genuine practical difference to the resident's capacity to maintain their tenancy and progress toward independence. A provider whose support records show active work toward employment outcomes, coordinated with the new income disregard, will be in a materially stronger position in an HB review or a SHROA licensing assessment than one whose support notes are generic or retrospective.

Start now. Review your support programme for employment readiness content. Brief your keyworkers on the Autumn 2026 change and ensure it features in support plan conversations from this point. Update your HB review documentation to reference the incoming disregard where relevant residents are in or approaching employment. The income disregard is a policy gift to providers who use it well. It will pass unnoticed by those who do not.

Supported Housing Briefing is published weekly. Free tier content may be shared freely. Deep Dive content is for subscribers only. © Leonard Payne / Complex Law. Clear Intelligence.