Comparing homelessness legislation
Northern Ireland’s definition of ‘threatened with homelessness’, its implementation of the ‘priority need’ principle, and its approach to homelessness prevention differs from England, Scotland, and Wales, a research paper has found.
Homelessness: a comparison of legislative frameworks in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, published in April 2025, outlines that legislation in England, Scotland, and Wales has been reviewed much more recently than Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland’s primary homelessness legislation, the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1988, is now over 30 years old. The research paper states: “It has arguably not been subject to the same level of independent scrutiny as the reviews of the legislative frameworks in England, Scotland, and Wales.”
Reviews in the other three jurisdictions have influenced legislative reform or approaches to reform. England’s 2015 review informed the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. Scotland’s 2021 review influenced part five of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025.
Wales’s 2023 review informed the Welsh Government’s White Paper on ending homelessness published later that year. Subsequently, the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Act was passed in February 2026.
Threatened with homelessness
The paper identifies the definition of threatened with homelessness as “one of the more obvious areas of divergence in housing law” across jurisdictions. This is the specific number of days within which it is likely someone is to become homeless. Under the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1988, the threshold is 28 days.
England’s Homelessness Reduction Action Act 2017 and the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 extended the definition of threatened with homelessness to include people likely to lose their home in the next 56 days from 28 days.
The Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill provides for the extension of the definition of threatened homelessness to six months. This reform was also introduced by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025.
Priority need
There is also divergence between jurisdictions regarding ‘priority need’. This is a means to categorise those most in need of housing based on circumstances such as pregnancy, illness, and disability.
Scotland abolished the priority need test in December 2012. This is identified as “one of the most significant differences” between the jurisdictions. The Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill provides for the abolition of differences in entitlement related to priority need.
Priority need is one of four statutory homelessness tests in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland’s implementation of priority need is partly aligned with England and the 2014 Welsh Act but there are variations. Many of England and Wales’s priority need groups are similar to those in Northern Ireland including pregnancy, those with dependent children, and homelessness due to an emergency such as a fire or flood.
However, Northern Ireland priority categories do not explicitly mention domestic abuse as they do in England and the 2014 Welsh Act. The research paper asserts that categories for younger people and those who are ‘care experienced’ are more specific in England and the 2014 Welsh Act. Someone is care experienced if they have been or are currently in care at any point in their life.
While England and the 2014 Welsh Act provide categories for people that are vulnerable as a result of serving a custodial sentence or being remanded, Northern Ireland does not. However, Northern Ireland’s priority need categories contain a ‘vulnerability’ group for those who do not fall into one of the existing categories.
Prevention
England’s Act and the 2014 Welsh Act created a new statutory homelessness prevention duty. This statutory duty obliges local authorities to help eligible people threatened with homelessness to either remain in their existing accommodation or help them secure alternative accommodation.
The Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill states that local housing authorities have a duty to prepare and maintain prevention, support, and accommodation plans for specific applicants.
Public body participation
Article 14 of the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1988 requires health and social care trusts, the probation board, and housing associations to cooperate with the Housing Executive. In other jurisdictions, this duty applies to a wider set of bodies such as the policy and the prison service.
The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 contains an ‘ask and act’ duty for specific bodies to enquire about the housing precarity of those they engage with and act on this information by assisting and/or possibly referring them to the local housing authority. It also has provisions to enable public bodies to submit a homeless application to a local authority for a person they have reason to believe is homeless.
England’s Homelessness Reduction Action Act 2017 and the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 strengthened the duty of specific public bodies to cooperate with and assist homelessness services.
The Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill states that local housing authorities must make arrangements to promote cooperation with specific public bodies to prevent homelessness.
Legislation in the Republic
Homelessness legislation in Northern Ireland is more comprehensive and detailed than in the Republic of Ireland. Key legislation pertaining to homelessness in the Republic of Ireland includes the Housing Act 1988, and the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009.
The Housing Act 1988 places a responsibility on housing authorities to respond to the needs of homeless people. However, it does not impose a duty on them to do so. Authorities may house homeless people from their own housing stock or through an arrangement with a voluntary body. The Act enables the local authority to provide a homeless person with money to source private sector accommodation.
It also enables the local authority to provide funding to voluntary bodies for the provision of emergency accommodation and long-term housing. Additionally, it requires the local authority to conduct periodic assessment of the number of homeless people in their administrative area as part of their housing needs assessment.
The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 provides a statutory obligation to have a homelessness action plan in place.
Next steps
The Executive’s homelessness strategy, Ending Homelessness Together 2022-27, sets an ambiguous ambition for legislative review. This is with a view to place a statutory focus on homelessness prevention and to provide more “person-centred statutory homelessness services”. The research paper acknowledges that Northern Ireland operates within “a challenging fiscal climate”.
“It is important to emphasise that legislative reform is not the only important factor that would contribute to achieving the goal of ending homelessness,” the research paper states.
