A councillor's guide to social housing in England: Local authorities and the strategic housing role by HQN Limited

A councillor's guide to social housing in England: Local authorities and the strategic housing role

AUGUST 2025

Tristan Smith, Janis Bright and Chloe Fletcher

Whether you're a new councillor or have recently taken up a cabinet or committee role, this guide will cover the essentials of the strategic side of councils' housing services from homelessness provisions to working with the private rental sector.

This briefing follows on from a previous piece on councils as social housing providers, which focused on how their landlord services operate. You can access this briefing here.

What are strategic housing services?

As part of their strategic leadership and place shaping activities, local authorities have a responsibility for the housing needs of all residents across all types of housing (not just the social housing sector).

This broad scale involvement is known as 'the strategic housing role' or 'strategic housing services'. In contrast to the landlord function, the strategic housing role looks at the wider picture of housing need and how to meet it rather than the day to day operations of social housing. Decisions about neighbourhoods and communities are also linked to the strategic housing role. In fact, committees or sub-committees covering housing may well be titled ‘communities’, ‘wellbeing’, ‘neighbourhoods’ or ‘environment’.

Even if a local authority does not have any housing stock, it is still responsible for strategic housing services.

Strategic housing considerations

As a councillor, you will be expected to advocate for people's current and future housing needs to be met, representing your constituents so that housing services reflect the wants and needs of the local population.

To help achieve this, councils have certain legal obligations, whether they own housing stock or not. They are required to:

• Assess and understand the current and future housing needs of the local population across all types of housing

• Facilitate the supply of new housing

• Ensure good use is being made of the existing housing in the area

• Ensure local rented housing is in good condition across both the social and private sectors

• Create and publish a strategy around homelessness and rough sleeping

• Create and publish a strategy around housing allocations, including how people will be able to access support and advice when applying

• Work with strategic partners in other areas of local government and beyond

• Have a clear, realistic and achievable vision for housing delivery in the area.

An individual local authority will likely include other aspects in their strategic housing services, but these are not governed by legislation in the same way.

Understanding local housing need

As part of their obligations to understand housing needs in the local area, councils have a statutory duty to produce a strategic housing market assessment (SHMA). An SHMA analyses your local housing market in depth, looking at demographics, trends, affordability, what housing exists in different areas and where more might be needed, particularly social and affordable housing. It also considers the unique needs of specific groups, such as supported housing for people who need additional support such as those with learning disabilities or older people.

The SHMA will likely fall under your local planning department because these assessments inform local planning policies, particularly the local plan. However, as they are about understanding where there is need for more housing and developing a strategic approach to housing development which aligns with the district's needs, they also fall under strategic housing services. These documents often contain complex statistical data and population analysis, but asking clarifying questions and focusing on the executive summary will allow you to gain the maximum benefit from them.

As a councillor, you will also be able to understand local housing need through your casework. Inviting feedback and input from residents, particularly those in rental housing, allows you to bring an understanding of their needs to the table during decision making processes.

Local planning

While local planning is likely to fall under a dedicated planning department rather than within housing services' remit, strategic housing services are still key stakeholders. Local planning will be particularly relevant when it comes to proposed new build properties, conversions, redevelopments and demolitions.

As a councillor, you or one of your colleagues will be involved both in the strategic decision making and approving local planning applications. Even though not every aspect of local planning directly involves housing, understanding how the decisions impact neighbourhoods and communities allows you to make informed decisions for current and future residents.

The local plan

The local plan is an essential document in shaping housing delivery within your local authority area. It sets out the framework for development projects and identifies sites and locations that are either good opportunities for future development, or which should be protected (eg, green areas). It will also outline the issues that should be considered when making planning applications and the criteria used to assess them. The local plan ensures shared understanding of the local authority's vision for housing in the area.

While social housing is only one aspect of what will be included in the local plan, it is important to ensure it is given enough consideration. Collaborating with strategic partners to keep it on the agenda is crucial both for meeting governmental targets for building new social and affordable homes across the country and to meet the needs of your local community.

Typically, a local plan will cover a set timescale. This tends to be for a ten-year period, although this varies depending on the individual local authority.

Building more homes through enabling

A key term in strategic housing services is 'enabling'. This refers to the work local authorities do to allow more housing to be built and developed, working with strategic partners like local housing associations, community groups, private developers and finance partners.

Enabling involves:

• Increasing the supply of affordable housing including supported or specialist housing that meets the needs of your local population

• Identifying where opportunities exist to build or develop more affordable housing

• Guiding public investment in affordable housing delivery

• Developing the policies and frameworks needed to begin housing development work

• Supporting and monitoring ongoing housing development work

• Using local authorities' powers and influence to unlock additional opportunities for housing delivery, including site assembly and accessing funding

• Supplying land for housing providers to develop homes for sale and rent, particularly as affordable and social rental properties.

Improving housing through regeneration

While a significant focus of strategic housing delivery is on new properties, it is important not to neglect work which may be needed on existing homes and neighbourhoods. Refurbishing, revitalising and redeveloping older housing stock can make those properties more desirable and improve the quality of life of current and future residents. However, this work is at its most successful when the whole area is improved.

When urban area or estate improvement work is combined with broader improvements to the local community and environment, this is known as 'regeneration'. Whether councils own stock or not, they are a key player in this work through their ability to grant planning and development permission.

In some cases, regeneration is part of a one off project rather than a broader strategic plan. Whether it comes under council services or is completed only by the housing provider will depend on the individual circumstances. Sometimes housing redevelopment is part of a much larger redevelopment scheme involving retail, leisure and business. In some cases, regeneration is part of local planning work.

Housing quality

The Decent Homes Standard

The current Decent Homes Standard has existed in the social housing sector since 2006. This sets out the minimum requirements around housing quality, stating that housing should be in a reasonable state of repair and free from hazards identified as category one under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).

However, the Renters' Rights Bill is set to expand the Decent Homes Standard to also cover the private rental sector. In addition, the government launched a consultation on upgrading the Decent Homes Standard across both the private and social rental sectors in summer 2025. Keeping up to date with the requirements for housing quality will help you to ensure your local authority is meeting its legal obligations in this area.

As a councillor, you may also deal with casework around housing quality. Being aware of the legal requirements set by the Decent Homes Standard and the enforcement options available when housing fails to meet these requirements will help you to fulfil this part of your role more effectively.

The private rented sector

Councils have duties in relation to quality standards in the private rented sector (PRS). They can use a variety of tools to improve standards, primarily in the form of encouragement (registration and accreditation) and enforcement (powers to inspect and require improvements) powers.

Alongside this, councils have other powers to protect tenants, for example through protections against illegal eviction, or voluntary registration schemes which offer accreditation to landlords who meet set standards.

In some areas, councils may require private landlords to license their properties in exchange for a fee. Currently, only houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) are required to be licensed in England, but individual local authorities may introduce additional licensing requirements for smaller HMOs or selective licensing requirements for all private rental properties in a specific ward.

Other ways councils work with private landlords include:

• Leasing properties from private landlords to provide more social or temporary housing

• Operating a local lettings system to help landlords find suitable tenants and tenants find homes

• Offering advice and mediation services for landlords and tenants to support tenancy sustainment.

Under the Renters' Rights Bill, the government intends to introduce a digital database for the PRS, which will require all PRS properties to be registered. As well as giving tenants access to more information, this will let local authorities keep better track of privately rented properties in their area.

Exempt supported housing

Supported housing is accommodation provided alongside support, supervision or care to help people live as independently as possible in the community. Within the supported housing sector there is enormous variation and diversity in the types of providers, scheme characteristics and ‘models’ of housing and support/care.

Supported housing is provided by councils, housing associations, charities, voluntary organisations and private landlords. It is formally commissioned through top tier councils, with adult social care responsibilities and the NHS but some private sector landlords have also developed a funding model via Housing Benefit. In the absence of other options many public authorities are now housing vulnerable people with support needs in this private ‘exempt’ accommodation.

Exempt accommodation is supported housing, which is exempt from certain Housing Benefit provisions, recognising the increased costs associated with managing that type of accommodation. Whilst some of this private provision is of good quality, in recent years there have been growing concerns about the rise of unscrupulous private landlords abusing this system for profit and providing unsuitable, poor quality homes with little or no support to vulnerable people.

To address these concerns the government passed the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 but its provisions are not yet in force They are currently consulting on how to take them forward and we may start to see some of them materialise by 2027. The act:

• Gives the Secretary of State powers to introduce a national licensing regime for supported housing which would be run by local authorities

• Gives the Secretary of State the power to set national supported housing standards for England

• Places a duty on local housing authorities to produce supported housing strategies to understand current availability and future need for supported housing

• Places a duty on government to set up an advisory panel to provide information and advice about supported housing.

Houses in multiple occupation

Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) are rented properties occupied by people who are considered to be part of separate households. Where there are five or more people in two or more households, the HMO must be licensed and councils can extend this requirement to smaller HMOs. A household can be a single person, a couple who are married or cohabiting, or members of the same family (including extended, step or foster families). Households can also include unrelated caregivers such as carers or nannies.

There are set legal requirements for things like minimum room sizes, amenities and fire safety requirements which landlords have to meet. This licensing and regulation make sure that:

• HMO landlords are "fit and proper, or employ managers who are”

• The property is appropriately sized for the number of people intended to live there, preventing overcrowding

• The property is safe to live in

• The property provides an appropriate standard of living

• Risks are identified and can be mitigated.

The role of a housing standards team

The housing standards team ensures landlords and property owners in the area are meeting requirements around housing standards, including safety, quality and appropriate licensing. This team will sometimes fall directly under housing services but may also be a part of the council's environmental health provisions.

It is now primarily in the private rental sector where a local authority's powers will need to be used to ensure housing meets quality requirements. However, a housing standards team can still be formally or informally involved in social housing matters within some local authorities.

Typically, a housing standards team will make sure a landlord is:

• Keeping properties for rent safe and free from hazards

• Carrying out repairs within acceptable time frames

• Issuing energy performance certificates and meeting legal requirements for minimum energy efficiency of properties for rent

• Operating with the correct permissions and licences, particularly in the case of HMOs and, in future, exempt supported housing.

Local authority teams may also work alongside the police, Border Force, Trading Standards or the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) on particular initiatives.

If a property is in a poor condition and improvements are not being carried out satisfactorily, a council's housing standards team may be asked to intervene. If the issue cannot be resolved through informal means or is deemed especially severe, they can take formal enforcement action. This could involve:

• Issuing an improvement notice - a legal document which requires the person it is served on (usually a landlord) to carry out repairs within a set timeframe

• Issuing a hazard awareness notice - a legal document officially informing the person it is served on about the hazard, so there is no doubt about their awareness of it

• Issuing a prohibition order banning the property from being used as living accommodation. If this happens, the council has a responsibility to support the tenants into alternative accommodation

• Taking emergency action to complete remedial works.

Particularly for tenants in the private sector, the housing standards team is a way for them to escalate issues if they are unable to resolve them with their landlord or letting agent. Building a relationship with this team will help you both in terms of understanding the current landscape in local housing and engaging in individual pieces of casework.

The Renters' Rights Bill currently going through parliament will introduce a new private rented sector landlord ombudsman service, which all private landlords in England with assured or regulated tenancies will be required by law to join. Local councils will be able to take action against landlords who fail to join, or against anyone who markets a PRS property with an unregistered landlord.

Funding and financing

The housing revenue account and general fund

In our previous briefing on local authorities as social housing providers, we covered the difference between the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and the General Fund.

Strategic services will typically be covered through the local authority's General Fund, which can be supported through loans, institutional investment or other forms of long term borrowing for capital spending. In some cases, local authorities may choose to work with social housing providers in their area, particularly private registered providers, to pool resources and funding options. In contrast, council's revenue spending on landlord functions (in cases where they own housing stock) will always be covered by the ringfenced HRA.

Financing building, enabling and regeneration

The current government's aim to build more affordable housing is central to all local authorities, whether they own the housing stock or not. With the June 2025 spending review announcing a ten-year commitment to funding the building of affordable housing, many social housing providers - including councils who operate landlord services - will be seeking to take advantage of the new social and affordable homes programme (SAHP) to help fund the building of new properties.

Enabling and regeneration works that are part of the council's strategic housing remit are typically covered by the General Fund. Because this account covers a range of council operations and services, it is important to know how budget is allocated to and what money is available for strategic housing services.

Sources of funding

There are varied sources of funding for strategic housing services, such as:

• Grants

• Loans

• Tax revenue

• Revenue from council services and assets

• Equity

• Institutional investment

• Private investment and capital.

Within private investment, there are a number of options through which councils may be able to finance their strategic housing work. These include:

• Direct investment: investment into a specific plot of land, building or other asset as part of a regeneration programme or investment framework

• Developer contributions: private developers may make contributions to public infrastructure as part of the planning process

• Managed assets: a special purpose vehicle purchases and manages an asset on behalf of the public sector, earning back the cost of their initial investment plus a return over time

• Partnership working: development partners in the private sector may work with councils on some or all of the process, from design to seeking tenants, meaning those aspects are funded by that private organisation

• Franchised operators: a private company is contracted to provide services on a publicly owned asset and invests in its functioning

• Revenue management services: a private company is contracted to collect revenue for public use of infrastructure, such as parking, roads, bridges or tunnels. They provide upfront investment in exchange for being allowed to collect this revenue.

Grants and loans for individuals

Alongside its responsibilities for broader scale housing development, local authorities' strategic housing services also cover issuing grants and loans to facilitate improvements to individual homes. While there are some cases in which either residents or landlords apply for funding directly from central government, there are other areas where this is coordinated and operated by local government. This is typically referred to as 'housing renewal assistance'.

Each individual council can decide what types of assistance it can offer and the conditions a person must meet before they qualify for it. They have to publish a clear, accessible policy regarding the financial assistance on offer.

Although they have a lot of flexibility around the financial assistance they provide, all councils are required to offer disabled facilities grants. These grants provide financial support to adapt homes and make them more accessible for disabled people. As with broader enabling and regeneration work, this comes from the local authority's General Fund. It is particularly important to have a comprehensive policy in place for people to access funding for adaptations in order to meet your obligations under the Equality Act 2010. Often adult social care departments will be involved in assessing people’s needs. The government is currently consulting on changing the way it allocates disabled facilities grant (DFG) funding to local authorities in England. The deadline for responses is 16 September.

Preventing and reducing homelessness

The Homelessness Act 2002 gives local authorities strategic responsibility for tackling and preventing homelessness, making it a legal requirement for all local authorities to have a homelessness strategy. As a councillor, you could be involved in reviewing and developing this strategy and will be considered an accountable person. It is therefore particularly important that you understand both the requirements of a homelessness strategy and the specific situation in your local area.

There are three key points to a homelessness strategy:

• Preventing homelessness in the area

• Ensuring suitable accommodation is available for people in the area who are or are at risk of becoming homeless

• Providing support for people in the area who are/may become homeless or who have been homeless and need support to prevent them from becoming homeless again.

In general, these policies should:

• Be developed in collaboration with adult social care services, social housing providers, voluntary organisations and individuals with lived experience of homelessness

• Have a clear evidence base

• Provide clear definitions of how homelessness in the area is measured and what steps are being taken to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping

• Include governance arrangements for how homelessness services will be monitored, delivered and evaluated

• Link to other relevant strategies as part of a cohesive plan for the region

• Be specific to the region, including considerations for any particularly vulnerable groups

• Clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of different groups and public authorities

• Be transparent, accessible and clear

• Be reviewed at least once every five years, ensuring they are up to date and accurately reflect the current state of homelessness in the area.

In some cases, you may wish to collaborate with neighbouring local authorities to pool resources and implement a plan across a wider area.

Homelessness reviews

It is a local authority's responsibility to gather data about the prevalence of different types of homelessness. People covered by homelessness strategies and provisions include those who:

• Are sleeping rough

• Are hidden homeless (have no fixed address, are sofa surfing, etc)

• Have been illegally evicted

• Are living in accommodation that is excessively unaffordable, unfit or overcrowded

• Are experiencing domestic abuse

• Are at risk of becoming homeless due to those they live with being unwilling or unable to continue to house them

• Are leaving care, prison or the armed forces

• Have been served a notice to quit their tenancy by private or social landlord and have no other accommodation lined up.

While rough sleepers are the most visible, they may not be the most common in the area and it is important to ensure all groups are supported in homelessness strategies. This data is typically collected in a homelessness review. This document will examine what's working well to tackle homelessness, what needs to be improved and what future priorities need to be.

Homelessness prevention

The key types of homelessness prevention covered in a homelessness policy include:

• Universal prevention: population-wide efforts that reduce overall risk of homelessness, for example by ensuring there is adequate supply of affordable housing in the area

• Targeted prevention: work that targets specific groups, such as people leaving care

• Pre-crisis prevention: focusing on reducing risk for people who are at imminent risk of being homeless (defined as within 56 days under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017)

• Emergency prevention: focusing on those who are at immediate risk of being homeless (eg, that night or soon after)

• Recovery-based prevention: reducing the risk of repeat homelessness, for example through additional housing support to those who have recently been rehoused following a period of homelessness.

Homelessness support

Alongside preventative work, local authorities are also required to have sufficient support in place for those experiencing homelessness and to evaluate its performance regularly to ensure it is meeting people's needs. This support will typically include:

• Immediate accommodation-based support, giving people access to temporary accommodation in hostels, shelters and refuges

• Longer-term accommodation support, covering assistance accessing social and affordable housing

• Non-accommodation-based support, including help with finances, employment and other specific issues which contributed to the individual's homelessness (eg, addiction services)

• Dedicated case workers and support officers

• Self-service tools, particularly online support

• Partnership working between healthcare providers, social care, employment support and welfare to reduce vulnerability and take a holistic approach

• Charity and other voluntary organisations' support.

Temporary accommodation

One of the key elements of homelessness support is in temporary accommodation. While it is beneficial in reducing homelessness, it is nevertheless important to ensure people are not forced to be in temporary accommodation for too long, as this is proven to have negative impacts on their wellbeing and sense of security. Bed and breakfast accommodation should only be used for families with children in an emergency and for no longer than six weeks.

When reviewing your local authority's approach to homelessness, it is important not to consider cases solved as soon as a person is placed in temporary accommodation and to think about what support they have to access more permanent housing.

Unlike permanent social housing properties, temporary accommodation is funded through the council's General Fund. This means that there is no ringfenced funding source specific to temporary accommodation and you will likely have to consider how budget is allocated in order to fund it. Temporary accommodation has become a serious issue in councils’ deteriorating financial situation across England.

Allocating social housing

Local authorities have a statutory requirement to develop an allocations policy and support for people seeking social housing, whether they own housing stock or not. This policy is typically shared between the local authority and registered providers of social housing operating in the area, and the local authority is almost always involved in implementing it.

An allocation is defined as selecting or nominating a person to become a tenant in accommodation owned by your local authority, another local authority or a private registered provider of social housing (eg, a housing association).

However, across England, more people are requesting social housing than can be given tenancies. This means that councils have to develop a policy for how they prioritise potential tenants, as well as for how they make decisions around allocations. These must:

• Clearly explain how decisions around allocations and priority are made

• Be applied consistently and fairly

• Give 'reasonable preference' to people who are homeless, have a specific entitlement to housing from their local authority, are currently in unsafe or overcrowded housing, have medical or welfare needs that result in them needing to move or would experience significant hardship if not provided with housing

• Include a statement about applicants will be provided with choices or ability to express a preference about their accommodation

• Comply with the requirement to 'safeguard and promote the welfare of children' set out in Children Act 2004.

Who can qualify for social housing?

There are two main methods of determining priority for housing allocations:

• Points-based - ranking applicants according to points awarded based on different categories of need or relative priority. The more points an applicant has, the greater their need for social housing and the more they will be prioritised. Each applicant will have their own individual points score

• Banding - creating groups known as 'bands' based on level of need or relative priority. All the applicants in an individual band are considered equally in need.

How need is assessed depends on the individual local authority. Local authorities can also set their own criteria for eligibility, so long as these do not unlawfully discriminate. For example, a person may be excluded from the housing register on the basis of:

• Having no prior residence in or connection with the local area

- Government guidance states that it is reasonable to require an applicant to have lived in the local authority area for at least two years before allowing them to apply for social housing

- There are exceptions to this rule in the case of victims of domestic violence, care leavers under 25, members of the armed forces and social tenants who need to move for work.

• A history of antisocial behaviour

• Outstanding rent arrears

• Home ownership

• Having large amounts in savings or high value assets that indicate the applicant can meet their own housing needs without social housing.

People who are subject to immigration control with no recourse to public funds are ineligible to apply for social housing. Migrants to the UK will only be eligible to apply for social housing if they have:

• Refugee status

• Humanitarian protection

• Indefinite leave to remain

• EU settled status

• Leave to remain after fleeing conflict in Ukraine, or Afghanistan, Sudan, Israel and Gaza

• Limited leave as a victim of human trafficking or modern slavery.

It is important that your allocations policies do not discriminate unlawfully against applicants. For example, while it is possible to consider a potential tenant's ability to pay their rent, it is not legal to require an applicant be in paid work, as this could illegally discriminate against disabled applicants who are unable to work. Similarly, while housing allocations must exclude people with no recourse to public funds, it is not legal to deny access to housing based on ethnicity or nationality.

Allocations in practice

The allocations process varies depending on the individual local authority. As stated in our previous briefing on local authorities as social housing providers, some councils run a choicebased lettings scheme where applicants can bid for specific properties.

In whatever way the process operates, almost all social housing is obtained when a local authority nominates an individual for that tenancy, so the ability to put the allocations policy into practice is an essential step in the process of getting people into social housing.

Decarbonisation and sustainability

In 2022, 20% of carbon emissions in the UK came from residential buildings. With a government-set target of net zero emissions by 2050, this is a significant issue to consider in councils' housing strategies.

Some of these emissions will be reduced with building new, more environmentally friendly homes, but according to the government's energy security and net zero committee, 80% of the homes that will be occupied in 2050 have already been built. Most will therefore need to be retrofitted with low carbon and energy efficient improvements to meet those net zero targets.

A significant amount of this work will fall to the housing providers themselves, but local authorities can support this through setting goals and putting frameworks in place for:

• Promoting green construction and housing development work

• Pushing for more environmentally friendly, energy efficient homes, both in new developments and through retrofitting (improvement work on existing buildings which go above and beyond maintenance and repair work)

• Facilitating partnerships between social landlords, developers and the private sector for a more organised rollout of retrofitting work, allowing a collaborative approach to develop retrofit strategies, secure joint funding and upskill teams

• Developing retrofit programmes targeting specific areas or neighbourhoods to streamline upgrades and minimise disruption

• Designing neighbourhoods that minimise the need for cars and promote walking, cycling and public transport

• Supporting housing providers to decarbonise existing housing stock

• Working to reduce fuel poverty

• Supporting wider climate and flood resilience work.

When it comes to sustainability and decarbonisation, councils and housing providers will have to pay particular attention to older buildings. The UK has some of the oldest housing stock in Europe and analysis from the Office for National Statistics shows that the age of a property has the most significant impact on its energy efficiency - almost all homes built in England since 2012 have an energy efficiency rating of EPC band C or above, compared to just 12% of those built before 1900.

Partnership working

As housing underpins so much of people's lives, it is important for housing strategy to be holistic. Working in partnership with other organisations can not only help to bring in new skills and perspectives, but also to uncover or solve issues which may otherwise have remained unknown to you. For example, being able to link your homelessness prevention work with organisations who support those struggling with addiction can allow you to reach this at-risk group more effectively before they become homeless, both benefitting them and saving money for the local authority in the long run.

However, for partnerships to be effective - whether they are for a specific project or initiative or cover more long-term day to day housing issues – they need to have clarity on:

• How joint working will achieve more than working in silos

• What it will achieve

• What will be involved

• Who the key players are within each partner organisation

• How performance will be managed and monitored

• Who is responsible for which aspects of the work, including preparation and review work.

Alongside working with providers of social housing and the private rented sector, there are also opportunities for partnership working with other local authorities across your region and with organisations in other sectors.

Regional partnerships

Particularly in mayoral combined authority areas, there are a wealth of opportunities to collaborate and pool resources in order to create a more comprehensive housing strategy. It also allows you to link housing with wider work on the local economy, planning, health, environment and transport work, which typically occurs at broader scales rather than ending at local authority boundaries.

Cross-sectoral partnerships

Alongside working with other regions and housing providers, there is also a key need to work across sectors. Particularly when it comes to social housing and housing for the most vulnerable people, building relationships and working in partnership with other sectors is essential for success.

Some organisations which may be involved in cross-sectoral partnerships include:

• Adult and children's social care services

• Healthcare providers

• Welfare and benefits services

• Employment services

• Education providers

• Police

• Fire services

• Charities and support organisations that operate in the local area, including for specific groups or issues

• Local community groups.

As a councillor, you are particularly well-positioned to build these relationships, as you will be working on other issues beyond housing and dealing with casework. This work will give you a better insight into where services can become more holistic and connected to meet the needs of your constituents.