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.

Read the full article from HQM here.