1. Why is the Shared Ownership Code important and how will it improve the customer experience?

The Shared Ownership Code is designed to standardise practice across a historically inconsistent tenure and embed clear expectations for transparency, fairness, and customer support throughout the buying and ownership journey. In May 2026, LiveWest became the first housing provider to formally adopt the Code.

Benefits for shared owners:

The Code aims to strengthen consumer protection by turning best practice into a standardised framework consistently applied across the sector, improving confidence and clarity for shared owners who are considering making a long-term financial commitment.

In practice, this means:

• Earlier and clearer information on costs, risks, and long-term affordability
• Consistent service delivery across housing associations
• Stronger expectations on service quality and complaint handling
• Reduced risk of mis-selling or unrealistic expectations about progression to full ownership

For housing providers, adopting the Code means:

• A clear framework for customer-facing practices – helping to reduce the risk of disputes
• A way to evidence commitment to transparency and accountability
• A way to demonstrate and support regulatory expectations about customer standards

2. How housing associations can adopt the Code?

Housing providers become Code adopters through by:

• Appling via the Shared Ownership Code website here (note, providers do not need to have everything ready at the application stage; our team work with providers to support them during this journey to compliance).
• Pay the required adoption fee and be listed as “Pending”.
• Access training materials and implementation resources.
• Review and align internal processes and systems against Code requirements.
• Complete mandatory staff training across relevant teams.
• Senior level attestation confirming compliance, followed by activation of Code adoption.

3. What are you most looking forward to at the conference?

The conference is an important opportunity to raise the profile of the Shared Ownership Code across housing providers and reinforce its vital role in driving consistent, meaningful improvements across the sector for customers of shared ownership homes.

It also serves as a clear call to action for senior leaders. Widespread adoption of the Code is essential to embedding good practice consistently across providers, and leadership commitment is key to achieving that.

By adopting the Code, organisations can demonstrate a tangible commitment to improving outcomes for shared owners, building trust, and ensuring the tenure delivers a fairer, more transparent, and higher quality customer experience.