Clause 22 - Events which may cause the duty to cease
Homes Bill
12:45 pm
Mr Don Foster (Bath, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 72, page 13, line 16, at end insert
`and states that the offer shall remain available to the applicant for not less than three working days from the date of the offer, or such longer period as the authority consider reasonable in all the circumstances.'.
The amendment would provide for a minimum period of three working days during which an applicant may accept or refuse a final offer of accommodation from a local authority. That offer may consist of either a council house tenancy or nomination to a registered social landlord.
The purpose of building in a statutory minimum period is to try to end the practices that we know occur in a number of local authority areas, whereby applicants are given as little as 24 hours to make a decision. I suspect that all members of the Committee will appreciate that a 24-hour time limit will, in many cases, not give the applicant enough time even to view the premises, let alone sort out the range of domestic issues that may be necessary to the decision to accept or reject the property; those include the effect on work or the schooling of any children involved.
I welcome Government's clear intention, expressed by part II and echoed in the housing Green Paper, to increase the amount of choice available to the homeless. However, it would be wrong to tolerate other measures that at the same time militated against choice. My argument is that allowing the practice whereby some authorities allow applicants only 24 hours to decide seriously militates against choice.