Sheltered Housing

Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 25 March 2014.

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Photo of Steve Reed Steve Reed Shadow Minister (Home Affairs)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of the use of sheltered housing to house families in temporary accommodation; and if he will make a statement.

Photo of Kris Hopkins Kris Hopkins The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

Local authorities are responsible for the sourcing and provision of temporary accommodation within their district. The law requires that authorities must be satisfied that the accommodation is suitable for homeless households. In considering suitability authorities must, by law, consider whether the accommodation is affordable for the applicant, its size, its condition, its accessibility and also its location.

In our drive to tackle the unlawful use of bed and breakfast accommodation we have provided almost £2 million to seven local authorities to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to this problem. Between them the seven local authorities have reduced the numbers of families with children in bed and breakfast accommodation for longer than six weeks by 96%.

In developing solutions to this problem a number of local authorities looked at innovative ways to increase the supply of temporary accommodation, for example using modular accommodation constructed off-site, converting office space to residential and using decommissioned sheltered accommodation.

This Government have invested £470 million to prevent and tackle all forms of homelessness over the spending review period. The homelessness legislation in England provides one of the strongest safety nets in the world for families with children and vulnerable people who become homeless through no fault of their own.

The Government have also made common sense changes to the law to allow local authorities to end the main homelessness duty with offers of accommodation in good-quality private sector accommodation. This helps homeless households move to settled accommodation more quickly and means they spend less time in temporary accommodation.

We have reduced the average stay in temporary accommodation from 20 months at the beginning of 2010 to 14 months now.

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