New domestic abuse guidance published

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) have recently updated two pieces of guidance in relation to supporting victims of domestic abuse.

Firstly, last month DLUHC published new guidance on the changes introduced by Section 79 of the Domestic Abuse Act. Section 79 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 came into force on 1 November 2021. It places new obligations on social landlords to ensure that, where they are offering a new tenancy to existing lifetime social tenants as a result of domestic abuse, such tenancies are granted on a lifetime basis. You can find out more about these changes in sections 40-45 of the new guidance.

Secondly, DLUHC have updated their statutory guidance on social housing allocations with suggestions about how local authorities and housing associations can improve their information sharing practices at the tenancy nomination stage where there are safeguarding concerns. These concerns may include, but are not limited to, domestic abuse. You can find further information about these changes in sections 5.7– 5.11 of the statutory guidance.

If you have any questions about these changes and what they mean for your organisation, then please get in touch with our team.