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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits for women's safety in residential settings of introducing a social housing scheme for women.

Under the Equality Act 2010, public authorities, including local authorities, must, in the exercise of their functions, have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010 because of someone’s protected characteristic(s).

Local authorities are responsible for allocating social housing. By law, certain people must be given priority. This includes women (or men) who need to move to escape violence.

Statutory guidance issued in 2012 also makes clear that housing providers should consider giving high priority to people who require urgent re-housing as a result of threats of violence.

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 included new duties for local authorities in England to provide support for victims of domestic abuse within safe accommodation. Alongside the formal commencement of the new duties in October 2021, we published Statutory Guidance and Regulation which make clear that mixed shared housing cannot be used as safe accommodation for domestic abuse victims under these duties.