Social housing providers have faced considerable change in 2025 and will continue to do so in 2026. Deep pockets and considerable resources will be needed to address new legislation, regulations and the challenges expected in the new year. Winckworth Sherwood’s Social Housing team points to the eight major challenges registered providers will need to consider in the year ahead.
Strategic Partnerships
Charlie Proddow, Partner and Head of Social Housing at Winckworth Sherwood commented: “Strategic partnerships will, in 2026, become fundamental in enabling residential developers to deliver new housing at scale. It is increasingly clear that public funding alone cannot resolve many of the issues residential and social housing developers face; long-term strategic partnerships unlock sites, secure funding, and drive sustained housing delivery at scale.
“Winckworth Sherwood, in the summer of 2025, conducted a major study into the impact of strategic partnerships on the sector. We found 67% of developers and social housing providers have embarked on strategic partnerships in the past 12 months, and a further 76% expect to do so in 2026 and beyond.
“The benefits are clear: strategic partnerships share risk, unlock land, provide access to funding and deliver shared expertise.”
Housing Strategy and For-Profit RPs
Matt Cowen, Partner, Housing Regulation at Winckworth Sherwood said: “One of the first milestones of the year will be the publication of the Government’s long-awaited housing strategy. Its contents will have a major impact on providers’ activities, with calls from across the sector for this to provide a joined-up, outcome-based approach which tackles affordability and the urgent delivery of new homes.
“Institutional investment into the affordable housing sector will continue to grow throughout 2026, with the registration of several new high-profile For-Profit registered providers (RPs) and significant additional capital being deployed from a range of investors. The buying and selling of For-Profit RPs continues to be a growing market to watch as the year progresses.
“2026 will also see the Government implement the results of several consultations that took place in 2025, including on Rent Convergence and the Decent Homes Standard. These will have a big impact on providers’ activities, budgets and business plans for the years ahead.”
National Housing Bank welcomed
Sarah Whitty, Partner, Housing Finance at Winckworth Sherwood commented: “Social housing providers can expect a major boost in financing following the launch of the National Housing Bank under Homes England, a dedicated financing platform designed to accelerate housing delivery across the country. The National Housing Bank is expected to channel £16bn of public investment to leverage over £53bn of private capital to back the construction of approximately 500,000 homes across England.
“For the sector, the National Housing Bank will make available £2.5bn in low-interest loans to support social and affordable housing, alongside a broad suite of debt, equity and guarantee products tailored to enable complex and large-scale developments. This represents a step-change in the funding landscape for RPs, unlocking capacity, reducing the cost of capital and accelerating delivery at scale.”
Rent Convergence
Ruby Giblin, Partner, Housing Finance at Winckworth Sherwood said: “We expect to hear the results of the Government’s rent convergence consultation in January 2026. There is an optimism that the option to use convergence, taking into consideration local conditions, will slowly bring rents up to a ‘formula rent’ before the latest 10-year CPI+1% settlement.
“Rent convergence ended in 2014, with the then Government imposing the CPI+1% regime for social housing rent increases. Social housing providers have, against a backdrop of high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, struggled to balance the books, fund remediation, fund new development and long-term maintenance and repairs.
“Its reintroduction is welcome news for the social housing and For-Profit providers; rents will increase along with marginally higher valuations and, consequently, the ability to secure increased borrowing. Coupled with (hopefully) further interest rate reductions, it may even contribute towards a renewed interest in capital market products.”
Building safety litigation and adjudication
Charis Beverton, Partner, Construction at Winckworth Sherwood commented: “The Building Safety Act 2022 continues to dominate the risk landscape. Issues arising under the Act are increasingly being litigated or adjudicated, particularly where funding or remediation covenants are breached due to prolonged approval timelines.
“Some of this may be resolved by the changed approach by the Building Safety Regulator (and its shift from the Health and Safety Executive subgroup to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in January 2026), but we anticipate compliance and enforcement issues will continue to arise throughout 2026.
“Awaab’s Law will also increase the pressure on social housing providers, with its strict timelines for hazard remediation. This will stretch already under-resourced teams.
“More positively, the avenues for recovery of funds and the confidence of registered providers to litigate is likely to lead to a more robust contractual position being adopted, which will lead to increased recovery of losses for social housing providers.”
Supported housing regulation
Charlotte Cook, Partner, Social Housing at Winckworth Sherwood said: “The Government’s promise to support those in supported housing is long overdue. Its consultation under the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 closed in May, and we had hoped to see the implementation of the measures proposed in this Act before the end of the year.
“We applaud the Government’s commitment to securing safe spaces and housing for women and girls, and we would hope to ensure that all of those in need of supported housing and care are fully supported. That should now be a priority for 2026.”
Conveyancing reforms
Ruth Barnes, Partner, and Jodie Barnes, Senior Associate, Residential Development Sales at Winckworth Sherwood commented: “Social housing providers dealing with new build sales will have to address proposed changes to the conveyancing process if the Government is to deliver on its aspiration ‘to deliver a faster, more reliable home buying and selling system, driven by consumers, innovative technology and high standard professional services.’
“The Home Buying and Selling Reform consultation was published in October 2025. One of its key proposals is the idea of introducing a mandatory requirement that sellers would have to work with their conveyancers and surveyors to carry out searches and a property condition assessment before putting a property on the market. It also proposes that a standardised set of data would have to be provided at the point of listing. Effectively, most of the legal work will be front-loaded, with the Government considering legislation to give this some teeth.
“Furthermore, the Government in late December published two consultations — the first looking at ways of enhancing protections for homeowners of freehold estates to tackle what are seen as ‘considerable injustices’, and the second addressing ‘unadopted amenities on privately managed estates’. They indicate, together with the Leasehold and Reform Act 2024, further change in 2026 for owners of privately managed estates.”
Planning Reform
Alex Woolcott, Partner, Planning at Winckworth Sherwood said: “The Government has trailed several reforms to help deliver its stated target of delivering 1.5m new homes during this parliament, driven through national and regional policy.
“In London, we have both the emerging London Plan, which given recent housing start numbers we can expect to focus on delivery and affordability. Whilst that works its way through the various draft stages, the Mayor and government have also published emergency measures. These came out towards the end of last year (as did an early Christmas gift of a draft NPPF), and are out for consultation until late January. Whilst these reduce the headline levels of affordable housing delivery specified in policy to help jumpstart housing delivery, they also include proposed measures to potentially and significantly reduce CIL liabilities for mixed tenure schemes in the capital.
“That sits in a broader context in which we have seen the government putting more focus on delivery of Social Rent as the preferred tenure, as apparent in the Golden Rules when it comes to unlocking Grey Belt sites. We’re seeing that trend continue in the draft NPPF, with the potential for minimum levels of social rent housing being prescribed in national policy, and the proposed emergency housing delivery measures for London.
“In practice, even the emergency measures won’t have a meaningful impact for some months — they remain out for consultation and various legislative steps then need to be taken for some of them to come into effect. That means we will be a good way into 2026 before they begin to make their mark.
“What happens to the market for S106 units remains to be seen, as broad funding challenges remain and will take some time to be unlocked. Rent convergence will help bring some greater financial confidence, but policy and wider market trends all point towards the need to broaden partnership models of working at the early stages, including through planning, to ensure that homes secured through S106 are deliverable and desirable for RPs. That has been recognised by the government in various consultation papers, and hopefully this will be acknowledged as best practice by LPAs when applications devised on that basis are presented to them.
“We will also see a push to reduce the time taken for planning decisions to be issued as the proposals for national schemes of delegation come to fruition, streamlining BNG for smaller sites, and hopefully the commencement of S73B to make it easier to amend schemes to reflect the complex and shifting market and regulatory climate RPs are having to navigate.”
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