By Jess Owen
A major Social Landlord has claimed that housing associations are not bound by some provisions of the 2010 Equality Act.
Peabody Trust, which operates over 100,000 Social Homes and “provide care and support services to around 25,000” people in England, claims that, as they are not listed in a schedule of the 2010 Equality Act, one of its specific duties does not apply to them.
The Equality Act 2010 applies to almost all employers, service providers, and organisations in the private, charitable, and public sectors. However, the Act’s Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is confined to ‘public authorities’ alone.
Public Sector Duties
The PSED creates an additional duty on public sector organisations, or those carrying out public functions, that requires them to consider how their functions will affect people with the characteristics protected by the Equality Act, including disability. The functions cover their policies, programmes, and services. The duties also require public bodies to monitor the actual impact of the things they do.
Council housing is firmly within the remit of the Equality Act’s PSED. Local authorities are unquestionably public bodies, and former council homes which have been transferred to charitable landlords remain public institutions.
However, some members of the legal profession claim, as Peabody has implied, that the quasi-private status of many housing associations disapplies the Equality Act’s Public Sector Equality Duty, although broader provisions within the Act prohibiting discrimination still apply.
This is contrary to guidance from the UK’s Equalities and Human Rights Commission which reported as far back as 2011 that:
”Recently, the Court of Appeal decided that a housing association was performing public functions when allocating and managing social housing. The association was therefore required to respect tenants’ human rights in doing so.” (Human Rights at Home. Guidance for Social Housing Providers).
And Peabody and others are trying to face both ways when it comes to their status as ‘registered social landlords’ and the question of whether they are private or public sector organisations.
As well as receiving significant government funding, the chair of Peabody, Ian McDermott, who also heads the ‘G15’ group of largest housing associations, recently called on the Treasury to treat social housing as “critical national infrastructure” when funds are allocated in the budget. This would appear to confirm that, contrary to what they are trying to tell tenants, Peabody regards itself as a public body.
A Downward Spiral
Peabody is not alone in its stance. Carl Davis of SHAC reported in November 2025 that London and Quadrant housing association (L&Q) is trying to evade its legal obligations by offering an in-house policy which initiates “a broader trend in social housing to replace legally protected categories with softer, more malleable ones that place control back into the landlord’s hands.” (Eight Ways That Landlords Subvert Disability Law).
Both L&Q and Peabody appear to be distancing themselves from other sections of the Equality Act – not just the PSED element. If they are successful in their machinations, it could be worth millions of pounds in money saved by refusing to make adaptations to homes or processes to accommodate the needs of disabled people.
Change Needed
If the Treasury accedes to the housing association sector’s request to treat social housing as critical infrastructure, it should come on condition that funding is tied to strict responsibilities.
These should include an obligation to comply with all existing legislation applying to public sector organisations when dealing with tenants and staff. The Equality Act 2010 should also be amended to make all housing providers explicitly fall within its Public Sector Equality Duty.
In 2021, SHAC published an article by member Carl Davis which poignantly explored the housing sector’s discrimination against disabled people – Look Who’s Talking: Mental Health Disability and Housing Associations. It resonated with so many disabled tenants and residents, that it led to the launch of SHAC’s Disability Visibility campaign.
4 February 2026
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Can we get a parliamentary petition going to get the Act amended so they cannot weasel their way out?