The government has published details of a Social Housing Bill. We explain what the Bill means for shared owners, and people considering shared ownership.
Shared ownership and the Social Housing Bill
On 16 June 2026, the government published details of a new Social Housing Bill. The Bill will: “protect much-needed social housing stock, give affordable housing providers the clarity and confidence they need to build more social homes, and better protect tenants who are victims of domestic abuse by providing them with greater security and stability”.
So what does this have to do with shared ownership? Details published by the government on 16 June didn’t mention shared ownership. However, on the same day, members of the House of Lords proposed several shared ownership amendments to the Bill.
A Bill is a draft proposal for a new law or a formal request to change an existing law. It is not law. Once a Bill has passed into law it is an Act of Parliament.
Shared ownership amendments to the Social Housing Bill
Two members of the House of Lords, Baroness O’Neill of Bexley and Lord Jamieson, put forward several shared ownership amendments for debate:
- 79. The Secretary of State must publish a strategy for expanding shared ownership, within 12 months of the Social Housing Act being passed.
- 105. The Secretary of State must undertake a review of shared ownership, within 12 months of the Social Housing Act being passed.
- The review of shared ownership should include:
- the method for calculating rent on the landlord’s share
- whether rent increases should be linked to inflation
- whether costs of sale should be split between the shared owner and the landlord
- the timeliness of housing provider responses to requests for legal information
- admin fees charged in connection with sales, staircasing and other matters
- the split of service charges, leasehold charges and management costs between housing providers and shared owners
- improvements made, and paid for, by shared owners
- barriers to 100% staircasing
- 106. The Secretary of State must prepare and publish a standardised model shared ownership agreement.
These proposals would require review of how shared ownership schemes operate, and barriers faced by shared owners.
Lords debate the proposed amendments
These are some key points from the Lords’ debate on the proposed amendments, with regard to pros and cons of shared ownership.
Risk and benefit
- Shared ownership offers benefits in principle but some problems in practice.
- Risks and costs are skewed in favour of landlords.
- The National Audit Office, Housing Ombudsman and Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee have all raised concerns about the way shared ownership currently operates.
Costs
- Rent on the landlord’s share can be more costly than an ‘affordable rent’ or a mortgage.
- Concerns about shared ownership service charges and maintenance responsibilities, particularly with flats.
Shared ownership staircasing
- Too many obstacles to 100% staircasing, including staircasing caps.
- Rising house prices, and legal and valuation fees, can push staircasing out of reach.
Shared ownership selling problems
- Shared owners pay 100% of the costs of sale, yet they may receive only part of the sale proceeds. (NB. presumably referring to simultaneous sale and staircasing transactions, where both the landlord and the shared owner sell their share to the buyer, but the shared owner bears the costs).
- Responses to requests for legally required information during purchase and sale processes can be very slow.
Complexity and transparency
- People did not understand what they were letting themselves in for, particularly for flats.
- Weak transparency.
- Variation in lease terms and a general lack of consistency.
- Law on conventional tenures – owner occupation, leasehold or tenancy – finds it difficult to accommodate the special nature of shared ownership, which is in fact a combination of all three.
Moving forward
- The debates on the final form of the Social Housing Bill are ongoing, and there is a proposal for a thorough review of shared ownership before any strategy to expand the scheme.
- Lord Young of Cookham suggested that any review should liaise closely with the Shared Ownership Council (NHQB) and Shared Ownership Resources.
Shared Ownership Resources says….
We welcome the thoughtful debate which took place in the House of Lords on 17 June 2026. A number of the proposed amendments to the Social Housing Bill, and other issues identified in the debate, align with recommendations in our 2023 report, Shared Ownership: the consumer perspective.
However, we consider that there were a few gaps in the issues discussed during the debate in the House of Lords. For example, with regard to barriers to exit where a home has become unaffordable and/or unsuitable and a shared owner needs to relocate.
We believe that collaboration between lawmakers, senior decision makers in the social housing sector, consumer and regulatory bodies, alongside people with expertise arising from lived experience, is vital to effectively identifying and tackling problems with shared ownership. We would welcome an opportunity to engage with review of the shared ownership scheme.
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