Housing campaigners say they are preparing legal action over Southwark Council’s newly adopted rules for allocating council homes, after the borough approved a policy intended to give greater priority to people assessed as being in the greatest need.
The statement is a new development in the dispute surrounding the Housing Allocations Scheme 2026. It should not be read as confirmation that a court case has been filed: HASL has said it is preparing legal action, rather than announcing a claim, hearing or judicial finding.
Southwark’s Executive adopted the scheme at its meeting on 15 September. The council says more than 22,000 households are on its housing waiting list, including more than 4,200 living in temporary accommodation. It says demand substantially exceeds the number of homes available and that the revised approach is designed to make allocation fairer and clearer.
What the new scheme changes
The policy replaces the previous arrangements, which dated from 2013. It moves to five priority bands, from A to E, and creates Band E as the lowest-priority group. The council has said people in that band will be able to bid through its choice-based lettings system, but are unlikely to be rehoused because their assessed housing need is low compared with other applicants.
It also gives higher priority to care leavers and eligible members of the armed forces. The scheme creates a category for people fleeing domestic abuse and allows some households who leave temporary accommodation for a private rented home to retain their priority while continuing to bid for social housing.
Other changes include ending extra priority previously linked to employment, volunteering or the Good Tenant Award, introducing annual reviews of households’ circumstances, and limiting applicants to two offers of accommodation. The policy also provides that same-sex siblings may be expected to share a room until the age of 20, unless a separate bedroom is required on medical or welfare grounds.
The council has said it will write to everybody on the waiting list to explain how the rules may affect their priority. It has also stressed that being on the register does not guarantee an offer of a council home. The scheme is due to take effect later this year, with a review planned after 12 months.
Challenge focuses on consultation
Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, known as HASL, has said its members are preparing legal action. The group’s concerns centre on the consultation conducted before the Executive decision, rather than an issued legal challenge to the policy itself.
Campaigners and disability advocates told the meeting that they believed the process did not reach enough people, particularly residents who may need information in accessible formats or ways of responding other than online. A HASL representative also alleged that the council had not properly taken account of responses from the group and argued that the process should be run again. Those are the group’s allegations; they have not been determined by a court.
The council’s consultation page says it invited residents to comment on proposals in 2025 and that feedback raised concerns about fairness, clarity, support with bidding and possible effects on vulnerable people. It says the final scheme was revised and clarified after that feedback was reviewed.
At the Executive meeting, the member responsible for council homes acknowledged that some residents could need documents and future consultation material in different formats. Neither HASL nor the council has announced a court claim or a council response to one.
A dispute alongside a wider shortage
The disagreement comes against the backdrop of Southwark’s acute shortage of social housing. The new policy determines relative priority among applicants; it cannot increase the number of homes available. That distinction is central to both sides’ accounts: the council says it must allocate scarce homes according to need, while campaigners say aspects of the new framework may worsen overcrowding and extend waits for some households.
For people on the register, the immediate practical step is to wait for the council’s individual communication and to use the review process available for decisions on their application. For the wider dispute, the next significant development would be a formal legal filing or a substantive council response to any such claim, neither of which had been confirmed at the time of publication.
