Has your criminal record had an impact on social housing?

The Localism Act 2011 gave local authorities and social housing providers some discretion to exclude people on the grounds of “unacceptable behaviour”. We’ve seen examples of local authorities excluding people with convictions for a range of offences.

As part of our work on housing policy, we want to understand more about if, and how, criminal records are having an impact on peoples’ ability to get, or indeed keep, social housing.

We’re gathering information and experiences to help us to better understand how a criminal record affects people when applying for social housing.

• Has your housing situation been affected by a criminal record?
• Have you been refused a tenancy or been evicted as a result of a criminal record?
• Have you come across any blanket policies being used by local authorities or housing associations?

What we need from you

If you have been excluded from housing due to your criminal record, contact us at policy@unlock.org.uk using the subject header ‘Call for evidence: housing’. Please include:

• Your name
• Contact details (email and telephone) and how you’d like us to contact you
• Details of your criminal record
• Details of your experience (please include the name of the housing provider and of any staff you spoke to, include emails/screenshots etc if possible)
• What you think should change
• Whether you’d be willing to take part in media coverage on this issue in future (this is for our reference only, we won’t share your details with others)

Any information you provide will be kept in line with our confidentiality policy. Any personal information provided to us will not be shared externally without your consent.

Find out more about how we handle your data.