Policy Library
Policy, research and good practice work forms a major part of Shelter's efforts to address and find solutions for homelessness and housing issues.
Briefing: King's Speech 2024
As the new government introduces legislation for the first parliamentary session and decides its areas of focus, one of its urgent priorities must be to tackle the housing emergency.
Published: 12 July 2024
Brick by Brick: A plan to deliver the social homes we need
A report setting out how we can build 90,000 social rented homes a year to end the housing emergency. This comprehensive report sets out a 6-point plan to build the social homes we need.
Published: 11 July 2024
Social homes - Open letter to all political leaders
Ahead of the 2024 General election, businesses, charities and think tanks across England have come together to support the Made in Social Housing campaign to reassert our shared call for all political parties to commit to delivering a new mass social housebuilding programme. The campaign highlights the positive impact that social rent homes have on the people who grow up in it.
Published: 30 May 2024
Briefing: House of Lords Second Reading of the Renters (Reform) Bill
The Bill which has made its way to the House of Lords is completely inadequate. We are therefore calling on all Peers to make this Bill fit for purpose.
Published: 10 May 2024
The Fight for Home is a Fight Against Racism
Everyone deserves an affordable, decent, and secure home. But too many people don’t have one. People working every hour they can are forced to choose between feeding their families and keeping a roof over their head. Private rents are soaring higher than ever and now there are over 145,000 homeless children in England. This is the housing emergency which is ruining lives every day. Not everyone experiences the housing emergency in the same way. Black, Brown and other communities of colour face additional barriers to accessing a safe and secure home. Historical inequities, modern policies and systemic racism mean that, while there is huge variation between different ethnic groups, people of colour are disproportionately more likely to be made homeless, live in deprived neighbourhoods and poor-quality homes. The only sustainable way to end the housing emergency is to build a new generation of good quality and genuinely affordable social homes, with rents tied to local incomes. To make sure that everyone has the right to a decent and permanent home, we must put race equity at the heart of the fight for home.
Published: 8 May 2024
Home Again: A 10-City Plan to rapidly convert empty homes into social rent homes
We need at least 90,000 social rent homes delivered every year in England, for 10 years, to end homelessness and house most of the people on waiting lists. To get to 90,000 new social rent homes a year we need a comprehensive plan. Later in 2024, Shelter will set out measures to hit this target. In the meantime, a small, but crucial part of this puzzle is the need to tackle privately-owned long-term empty homes (LEH). This 10-City Plan sets out how a new government could invest £1.25bn in central grant funding to rapidly convert 10,500 empty homes into social rent homes in the first three years of a new government.
Published: 24 April 2024
Briefing: Report Stage of the Renters (Reform) Bill
We are calling on all MPs to stand up to the self-interest of landlord MPs and ensure the debate at Report Stage is a truly balanced one.
Published: 22 April 2024
Briefing: Social housing – a place of safety for domestic abuse survivors
Domestic abuse is, by its very nature, a housing issue and a key driver of homelessness for women. 2.1 million people were subjected to domestic abuse in England and Wales last year with two-thirds (65%) of victims women. Domestic abuse is the third most common trigger of homelessness.
Published: 19 April 2024
Briefing: Putting on the stabilisers - Protecting private renters from unaffordable rent rises
A third of private renters spend half or more of their income on rent. The Renters Reform Bill offers a crucial opportunity to tackle a major cause of instability in England’s private rented sector, the lack of regulation of rent increases during the term of a tenancy. Despite the end of Section 21, the back door will remain open to ‘no-fault’ evictions if the Bill fails to prevent large rent hikes beyond a tenants’ means from being used to force renters from their homes. Sensible measures to stabilise the rate at which rents increase during the term of a tenancy, which are core to greater security of tenure in other countries, would balance tenants’ right to a secure, affordable and stable home with landlords’ need to reasonably cover cost increases.
Published: 25 March 2024
Briefing note: Managed migration to universal credit
Shelter briefing on the managed migration of people claiming legacy housing benefit to universal credit in 2024.
Published: 21 March 2024