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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help enable people living in social rented housing to own pets.

The government wants to ensure more tenants can experience the benefits of pet ownership.

Many social landlords set out their pet policies in their tenancy agreements and will allow tenants to keep pets where it is appropriate to do so. Consideration is given to whether the pets can be well looked after and any adverse effects on the lives of neighbours and those living nearby.

We encourage all social landlords to adopt similar policies.

The circumstances in which pets may be kept is, however, for social landlords to determine locally, taking account of the views of their tenants.