Angela Rayner promises greater public control of housing in England

Conference speech to announce housing associations cannot reject homeless families without good reason as councils gain new powers

Housing associations in England will be told they cannot decline to house homeless families without good reason, Angela Rayner will tell the Labour conference, as part of a drive for more public control of housing.

Homelessness charities said the new powers were a “gamechanger” and had the potential to make a significant difference to rough sleeping and families in temporary accommodation, the numbers of which have risen sharply. Almost 180,000 children are living in temporary accommodation.

The government will also give local councils 60 days to bid to buy social homes when they go on the market, as well as compelling public services to refer people at risk of homelessness for housing support.

Rayner hinted she wanted to see a greater share of housing cash given to councils to build new homes, saying she was “tapping them on the shoulder” to put in more plans in the next funding round.

Andy Burnham has previously said he would like to spend all the funds from the affordable homes programme on social homes, though the last round of funding included other types of homes, such as shared ownership.

“Andy’s put even greater focus on council housing for sure,” Rayner said. “It’s very clear our ambition is for council building, and we are the start of that work.”

The measures announced at the Labour conference will make it easier for councils to buy up social rented homes that are being sold by private registered providers, as well as to refer homeless households directly to housing associations and other providers to be housed. Legislation will come in the social housing bill, which is in the Commons.

Matt Downie, the chief executive of the homeless charity Crisis, said: “This is a hugely significant development towards preventing and ending homelessness for good, with the housing secretary making clear that we’re only going to tackle this ballooning problem by providing stable, secure homes.

“The new referral duty to ensure people who are homeless can access a social home is not only critical for families up and down the country but could be a gamechanger in the national drive to support people sleeping rough by Christmas. This is exactly the big-picture thinking we need to make a difference.”

Local authorities will gain new powers to refer a homeless household to housing associations, which can reject them only if they provide reasonable grounds for doing so.

The associations will be required to give councils 60 days’ notice that they are selling a property, to give councils or other social housing providers time to bid for the home.

The government will put a new collaboration duty on public services such as health services and local authorities to notify them of a crisis that could lead to homelessness, in an effort to increase early intervention. A similar duty has already been in place in Scotland and Wales, though both still have severe issues with numbers of people in temporary accommodation.

In her conference speech, Rayner will say: “Councils understand their local areas best and are ultimately accountable when families are left without a secure home. This is why greater public control of social housing is so important, and why I am so committed to getting more council housing.”

Speaking to the Guardian before the speech, Rayner stopped short of committing that the next £16bn funding round for affordable homes would all go to social housing but said the government was encouraging bids as far as was possible.

“We’ll have to see what comes through, ultimately. But what we’ve made really clear to councils is we want you to build council-owned and we want to come forward as a part of that, and we want to support you in doing that,” she said.

“We are tapping them on the shoulder and saying that’s what we want and giving them some money to do the groundwork, because most councils have not built council housing in so long, they’re not geared up.”

The homelessness charity Shelter said the measures announced on Tuesday would only be effective if the supply was in place so that referrals led to families and individuals being housed.

Mairi MacRae, the director of campaigns at Shelter, said it was “a step in the right direction. But making better use of the social homes we already have is not the same as building new ones. The only long-term solution is to build more social homes at the scale needed to give families a safe, secure and affordable place to call home. We need 90,000 social rent homes a year for the next 10 years to put an end to homelessness.”