Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of protections for social housing tenants using mutual exchange services; and whether she plans to take steps to improve transparency and accountability during the process of identifying and progressing potential exchanges.

The Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenancy Standard, which can be found here, requires registered providers to offer a mutual exchange service which allows relevant tenants free and easy access to details of available matches.

Landlords must publicise the service, support access, and provide information to tenants about the implications of an exchange for their tenure, rent, and service charges.

Landlords are responsible for ensuring that mutual exchanges comply with relevant legal requirements.

Secure local authority tenants have a statutory right to exchange, subject to specified grounds for landlord refusal, while the rights of assured housing association tenants will usually be set out in their tenancy agreement.

The government is reviewing how effectively social landlords use their existing homes, including how movement within social housing can be supported through transfers and mutual exchanges. The review will report later this year.