Clause 17 - Homelessness reviews
Homes Bill
10:30 am
Mr Don Foster (Bath, Liberal Democrat)
We appreciate that this is the Minister's first outing and well done to him for making a good fist of it following very much in the style of his predecessor. In the spirit of complete friendliness, I should point out that having the words ``advice services'' in the guidance does not give guidance to those advice services. The point that I was hoping that he would be prepared to address was the need to give housing authorities guidance on how best to provide those advice services.
Some local authorities provide that advice themselves; others use voluntary agencies. Many subcontract the work to citizens advice bureaux. Some of those who provide advice tend to provide it to only certain categories of people. Others have addressed an issue that worries Help the Aged and have tried to ensure that elderly people, who could also be vulnerable to homelessness, are provided with a full range of advice. Some others seem almost to miss out that category. There are examples of good practice. I hope that we can expand the guidance notes to local authorities so that we can give them greater guidance about how best to provide that advice.