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 ensure that local authorities are implementing the changes introduced in November 2024 to exempt all veterans from local connection requirements when applying for social housing; and if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of compliance by councils in the West Midlands.

The Allocation of Housing (Qualification Criteria for Armed Forces) (England) (Amendment) Regulations, which came into force in December 2024, mean that local authorities are no longer allowed to apply local connection tests to veterans of the Regular Armed Forces, regardless of when they last served.

Statutory guidance was updated on 18 December 2024 to reflect this change. The Department also notified local authorities when the regulations had been laid and came into force.

My Department will be monitoring the impact at local authority level through the Local Authority Housing Statistics, which will be published later in the year.