With social housing at a premium, landlords are finding innovative ways to make better use of their stock by encouraging tenants to move into homes more suitable for their needs and size of household. With ‘rightsizing’ moving up the sector’s list of priorities, Neil Merrick takes a look at some of the initiatives.
Mobility has never been more important in social housing – for both residents and landlords. Best case scenario, it allows older tenants to live more comfortably in a smaller home while a younger family facing homelessness moves into a property with more bedrooms.
For the past nine months, tenants in Manchester have been offered £2,500 in cash to downsize and free up larger homes for people on the housing waiting list.
The offer, available to council tenants and people renting from housing associations in the city, appears to be delivering results. Last year, 128 households moved into smaller homes compared with 67 in 2024/25.
Along with other landlords, Manchester City Council doesn’t talk about downsizing, preferring to use the term ‘rightsizing’. Gavin White, its cabinet member for housing, says: “For some of our residents, it’s about getting them into the right home at the right stage in their lives. Rightsizing can be very positive as well as practical.”
There’s little doubt that rightsizing has moved up the sector’s list of priorities. Twenty years ago, recalls Cllr White, the desks of housing officers were stuffed full of keys for homes that nobody seemed to want. “We couldn‘t give them away,” he says.
Shortages
Twenty years on, the situation is very different, with shortages of not just family-size homes but, in many areas, a lack of one or two-bed properties as well.
About 30% of council homes in Manchester are ‘underoccupied’. In many cases, tenants are couples or single people whose children have left home but are used to having spare bedrooms – something the controversial bedroom tax was designed to address. Many are reluctant to up sticks if it means moving to a different neighbourhood. “They want a smaller property that’s better for their health but still in the local community,” adds Cllr White.
A few miles away, Stockport Homes has promoted rightsizing or mutual exchanges for more than a decade. Things have become more challenging due to the housing crisis, explains customer services manager Karen Pimlott, with the arm’s length management organisation (ALMO) recognising the need to make best possible use of each property.
“It has to fit the demographic needs and stock levels in your local authority area, but rightsizing is certainly on everyone’s radar”
Karen Pimlott, customer services manager, Stockport Homes
About 10% of the ALMO’s 12,000 homes are underoccupied by tenants aged 50 or older. “A lot of those people have more physical adaptation needs than when they first went into the property,” says Pimlott.
“Not only do people sometimes struggle to get upstairs, they’re also often hesitant to reach out for support from their landlord. As a result, they can become very lonely and isolated,” she adds.
In such cases, a neighbourhood officer explains how moving to a smaller home is an option they can pursue. Stockport Homes stresses, however, that nobody is under pressure to move.
Nor does the ALMO offer cash incentives. Instead, it provides support to remove financial barriers to any move, including decorating, carpets and, where needed, packing up or clearing unwanted belongings from the house being vacated.
During the past three years, 66 Stockport Homes tenants have moved to smaller homes, with each of the properties vacated offered to a homeless family that was in urgent need. “I firmly believe that providing robust, customer-focused support to remove financial and practical barriers is the key to future success,” says Pimlott.
What the Cambridge study tells us
A study into under-occupancy by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (CCHPR), published earlier this year, warns social landlords against relying too heavily on financial incentives to encourage downsizing.
Successful mobility schemes combine such incentives with practical support to overcome barriers that deter older tenants – and others – from moving. “Successful approaches integrate the right property offer, personalised support, and targeted financial payments,” says the report.
The study also found evidence of local authorities offering grants to tenants wishing to move out of a council home and purchase a property.
A pilot scheme launched this spring by Brighton and Hove Council offers tenants who are considering the right to buy a grant of up to £50,000 towards a deposit on a home, providing they abandon their RTB application.
Ministers also want to encourage mobility, not only so homes are better suited to tenants, but so that assets built in whole or part with government money are used more efficiently.
Allocations review
Earlier this year, as part of its ‘decade of renewal’ in social housing, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced a review of how social landlords allocate and manage properties.
The review is exploring ways to “reduce the time homes are left empty, encourage movement within the sector through mutual exchanges (particularly where homes are overcrowded and under-occupied) and support people to move into more suitable properties”, says the department.
To coincide with the launch of the Social Housing Bill in May, housing minister Matthew Pennycook wrote to council leaders and housing associations, saying better use of stock would increase the likelihood of homes going to people in most need.
“It’s not about pushing anyone to leave their home but about helping people make a move when it’s right for them”
Mark Renders, deputy leader, West Devon Borough Council
Despite the cost of incentives running into thousands of pounds, councils say they save money in the long run by freeing up larger homes for families who otherwise face the prospect of long periods in temporary accommodation.
Sums spent by English councils on bed and breakfast and other forms of temporary accommodation have more than doubled during the past five years, reaching £2.8bn in 2024/25.
In Manchester, the city council funds the £2,500 incentives offered by local housing associations as well as those it pays its own tenants. It’s also brought 600 empty homes back into use during the past two years.
According to Gavin White, the savings to the council are considerable, while tenants who downsize are likely to pay lower energy bills as well as live more safely in a smaller home. “It’s a win for the council in helping people who are experiencing homelessness and, if the move is done well, people should have fewer trips and falls,” he says.
Money talks
Cash incentives appear to be catching on. Later this year, council tenants in Southampton will be offered up to £1,000 if they move to a home with one fewer bedroom, and £500 for each extra bedroom they free up. Families will also be able to claim up to £750 in removal costs.
West Devon Borough Council, which doesn’t own its own homes, offers downsizers renting from local housing associations up to £5,000, including an additional £2,500 in ‘high priority’ areas. Associations must in return guarantee that nomination rights for any property vacated are passed to the council.
Seven moves attracted financial support in 2025/26, with two of the homes vacated let to homeless households. “It’s not about pushing anyone to leave their home but about helping people make a move when it’s right for them,” says Mark Renders, the council’s deputy leader, who is also the postmaster in Princetown on Dartmoor.
According to the CCHPR study, incentives across the sector may consist of lump-sum payments, a per-bedroom payment model, or a tiered model with payments increasing as more bedrooms are released.
Notting Hill Genesis offers tenants up to £4,000 to downsize, including money for decoration and improvements. Households that are under-occupying by two or more bedrooms can move to a smaller home that still offers them one spare bedroom.
“A pilot scheme launched by Brighton and Hove Council offers tenants who are considering the right to buy a grant of up to £50,000 towards a deposit on a home, providing they abandon their RTB application”
Sovereign Network Group is in the throes of consolidating the rightsizing schemes run by its constituent associations prior to last year’s merger. Twenty-two households moved to smaller homes within SNG in 2025/26, while a further seven moved to other social landlords or found homes elsewhere.
SNG, which spent a total of £40,000 on incentives in 2025/26, is also looking at other ways to encourage tenants to move out of homes with spare bedrooms. Reluctant movers are sometimes attracted by the prospect of living in a newly-built home, but this requires negotiations with councils over nomination rights, says Shannice James-Mcfee, SNG’s head of lettings.
“We need to ask people what they actually want,” she says. “We want customers to be appropriately housed in a way they can sustain their tenancies with larger homes freed up for people on the housing register.”
Collaboration
Wider mobility across the sector not only depends on initiatives by individual social landlords but greater collaboration among councils and housing associations within a city or region, including agreement on nomination rights.
Last year, Greater Manchester Combined Authority called social landlords together to investigate ways to promote rightsizing at the same time as offering older people more choice of housing.
The shortage of one-bed homes for downsizers to move into is also an issue with demand for bungalows often outstripping supply, says Karen Pimlott.
Wider collaboration between social landlords, including pooling of smaller homes when they are empty, ultimately benefits everybody and enhances the appeal of schemes run by individual landlords.
“It has to fit the demographic needs and stock levels in your local authority area, but rightsizing is certainly on everyone’s radar,” she says.
South Essex Homes case study
Since January, tenants in Southend-on-Sea who rent from South Essex Homes have been offered £1,000 for each bedroom they free up when they downsize.
The payments, up from £500 prior to this year, are already achieving results, says Sarah Lander, the ALMO’s director of housing services. More tenants offered to move during the first half of this year than at the corresponding stage of 2025. “It’s looking encouraging,” she says.
South Essex Homes has run a downsizing scheme for more than 20 years. Until this year, about 13 households moved to smaller properties annually.
Up to £3,000 is available to individual households that free up three bedrooms, with the ALMO also covering removal costs. The council, she adds, recoups money spent on incentives by spending less on temporary accommodation for homeless families.
The ALMO tries to offer tenants in larger homes a bespoke service. But some are keener to move than others, especially where it means breaking an emotional tie people have with their home.
Others, however, are attracted by the idea of living in a smaller home with lower energy bills and smaller gardens. Those that agree to move get first pick of homes that are suitable for a household of their size and are given priority if newly-built properties are available.
“We want the properties to be used in the best way possible as they’re a very limited resource,” says Lander.