Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will update the Improving access to social housing for members of the Armed forces statutory guidance for Local Authorities to remove the five-year time limit on local connection test for social housing allocation.

Local councils are best placed to determine how best to manage access to social housing – they are responsible for allocating housing through local schemes. These are governed by a framework of rules set by central government which ensure social housing is prioritised for those in housing need.

In line with DLUHC’s commitments in the Armed Forces Covenant, we introduced regulations in 2012 that prevent local authorities from applying a local connection test to disqualify serving personnel as well as those within 5 years of having left the Armed Forces. Statutory guidance is clear that members of the regular Armed Forces, their bereaved spouses and civil partners, and seriously injured reservists, must not be disqualified for an allocation of social housing because they lack a local connection to an area.