(1) Section 81B of the Housing Act 1985 (cases where old-style English secure tenancies may be granted) is amended as follows.
(2) After subsection (2) insert—
(2A) A local housing authority that grants a secure tenancy of a dwelling-house in England must grant an old-style secure tenancy if—
(a) the tenancy is offered to a person who is or was a tenant of some other dwelling-house under a qualifying tenancy (whether as the sole tenant or as a joint tenant), and
(b) the authority is satisfied that—
(i) the person or a member of the person's household is or has been a victim of domestic abuse carried out by another person, and
(ii) the new tenancy is granted for reasons connected with that abuse.
(2B) A local housing authority that grants a secure tenancy of a dwelling-house in England must grant an old-style secure tenancy if—
(a) the tenancy is offered to a person who was a joint tenant of that dwelling-house under an old-style secure tenancy, and
(b) the authority is satisfied that—
(i) the person or a member of the person's household is or has been a victim of domestic abuse carried out by another person, and
(ii) the new tenancy is granted for reasons connected with that abuse.
(2C) In subsections (2A) and (2B)—
“ abuse ” means—
violence,
threatening, intimidating, coercive or controlling behaviour, or
any other form of abuse, including emotional, financial, physical, psychological or sexual abuse;
“domestic abuse” is abuse where the victim is or has been—
in the same family or household as the abuser, or
in an intimate personal relationship with the abuser;
“ qualifying tenancy ” means a tenancy of a dwelling-house in England which is—
an old-style secure tenancy, or
an assured tenancy which is not an assured shorthold tenancy and which is granted by a private registered provider of social housing, by the Regulator of Social Housing or by a housing trust which is a charity.
(3) In subsection (1)(b), after “(2)” insert “ , (2A) or (2B) ” .