Mr Don Foster (Bath, Liberal Democrat)

I am delighted to follow the hon. Member for Regent's Park and Kensington (Ms Buck) who has played an important role in addressing these issues. I have much sympathy and support for her amendment.

I shall briefly touch on my amendment and on the suitability of accommodation that local authorities make available under their requirement to accommodate homeless individuals or households. Members of the Committee will know that local authorities are already required, under a range of statutory measures, to tackle poor housing conditions in their area, but the accommodation that they provide for homeless households does not have to comply with those standards. The legislation rightly proposes that the accommodation that local authorities provide to homeless individuals or households should be ``suitable'', but it does not define suitability. Local authorities must have regard to the existing legislation, which defines suitability, but that legislation does not require that they meet those minimum standards.

The amendment is a probing amendment that suggests minimum standards for accommodation so that it is deemed suitable for people who are homeless. I am sure that all members of the Committee are aware of the requirement to have regard to various aspects of housing: for example, the Housing Act 1985 requires consideration of issues such as slum clearance and overcrowding, which the hon. Lady mentioned, and houses in multiple occupation. There are also requirements in respect of the affordability of accommodation. Legislation exists that attempts to provide some definitions but the local authority is under no specific requirement to do more than have regard to those definitions. Like the hon. Lady, I acknowledge that some of the existing definitions are massively out of date: the legislation on overcrowding, for example, is based on legislation enacted before the second world war. Measures that go that far back obviously need to be reconsidered. However, they are on the statute book and I used them in my amendment, although I acknowledge that more up-to-date Government proposals would be preferable.

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