New Clause 3 - Overcrowding and homelessness
Homelessness Bill
10:45 am
Ms Sally Keeble (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions; Northampton North, Labour)
I am grateful to hon. Members for raising important issues of homelessness and quality. Since I took on responsibility for housing, several hon. Members have expressed concern about the operation of room and space standards. Indeed, my hon. Friend the Member for Regent's Park and Kensington, North raised the issue on Second Reading, and other hon. Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King), returned to it last week in an Adjournment debate on housing in London.
Overcrowding and poor standards are unacceptable, but it will take time to deal with such deep-seated problems. The issue has a long history. The first standards date back to the Nuisances Removal Act 1855 and the Diseases Prevention Act 1855, which permitted a local authority to close a house where insufficient
``privy accommodation, means of drainage or ventilation''
or other nuisances were such
``to render a house or building, in the judgment of the Justice, unfit for human habitation''.
Fortunately, we have moved on since then. When pressure on housing rises, it is a regrettable fact of life that more poor and unsatisfactory housing is drawn into use and the occupancy of existing accommodation increases, resulting unfortunately in overcrowding. My hon. Friend the Member for Regent's Park and Kensington, North was right to note the difficulties with the overcrowding regulations. We all recognise that there are problems, especially in London and the south-east, where demand for all forms of tenure is growing beyond the region's capacity to cope.
Many people live in unacceptable conditions, and we are all familiar with the problems faced by those in temporary accommodation.