Clause 22 - Events which cause the duty to cease
Homes Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions; Coventry North East, Labour)
Thank you, Mr. Gale, for your congratulations and warm words on my geographical move to the left.
I appreciate the intention behind this amendment, which is to ensure that, under part IV, applicants have a reasonable period in which to consider a final offer from a local housing authority. Applicants need time for deliberation, and possibly to consult relatives, friends or advisers on the options available. The hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) has made some good points in relation to the time that it can take to explore educational opportunities in an area and to secure undertakings on repairs.
Those are important matters that enable applicants to make informed and sensible choices, but we must be careful not to burden the Bill with too much detail, which might obscure its principal purposes. In addition, I fear that the effect of legislating for a minimum period of three days would be to make three days a standard and, in effect, a maximum period as well. That would considerably worsen the situation in many local authorities. In most instances, three days would be too short a period: authorities need the flexibility to adapt to particular circumstances.
We recognise the problems that hon. Members have raised. Some authorities operate in far too restrictive and bureaucratic a way and are totally inflexible in their allocations policy. DETR research has been heavily quoted, but it only highlights the need for the legislation that we are here to discuss.