Clause 8 - Review of decisions as to suitability of accommodation
Homelessness Bill
5:30 pm
Mr Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
I welcome the clause for its strengthening of applicants' rights to challenge the suitability of accommodation. I especially welcome the fact that it makes the system suit the individual rather than the other way round, as so often with our legislation. However, I wonder what difference it will make in practice to many of our constituents. Shelter expressed the concern about clause 5 that the powers may be somewhat theoretical in nature; I suspect that that could be said of this clause as well.
I want to illustrate my point by means of an individual case. On Saturday morning, a young couple came to see me who described themselves as homeless.
They had two children—a two-and-a-half year old and a nine-and-a-half year old. Yesterday they were offered a property and had only 24 hours to decide whether to take it. In their view it was unsuitable for them for several reasons. It was underneath a stairwell in which people congregated at night, and they thought that there would be a lot of noise when the children were going to sleep and that there might be drug taking. The wife thought that, when she came back with shopping, by the time she had taken her children to the top of the stairs and into the flat her shopping might well have been stolen. The property was a first-floor flat with a balcony, and she was worried that her two-and-a-half year old was likely to be able to clamber over the balcony and that she would not always be able to supervise the child. No doubt under the Bill they could request a review of the suitability of the accommodation and would, I hope, be told that it was not suitable for a family in their circumstances. However, in a local authority such as the one in my area, it is unlikely that further offers of accommodation would be made. How will the clause help such a family?