Proposed homelessness legislation "will not work", councils warn

The Government’s proposed homelessness legislation, which is to impose a range of duties on councils, will not work, the Local Government Association has warned.

Measures in the Homelessness Reduction Bill highlighted by the LGA include:

• A new duty for local authorities to take action to prevent the homelessness of anyone eligible for assistance (e.g. ‘habitually resident’ in the UK) and threatened with homelessness within 56 days, without regard to their priority need status.
• A new duty for local authorities to take steps to relieve the homelessness of anyone who is currently homeless, eligible for assistance and has a local connection to the area.
• For households who are not in priority need but have nowhere to stay, the local authority must provide emergency interim accommodation for up to 56 days.
• The full homelessness duty of settled accommodation will remain in place for households who are eligible for assistance, homeless through no fault of their own, have a local connection, are in priority need and where the prevention and relief duties have failed.

The Bill is due to have its second reading in the House of Commons in October.

The LGA warned that the legislation would “divert resources away from other essential homelessness work leaving councils less able to support vulnerable people”.

Existing and additional commitments should be fully funded, the Association insisted. It also called for councils to be allowed to build more affordable homes.

LGA Chairman Lord Porter said: “Simply adding more duties to councils is not the answer to tackling homelessness. The only viable long-term solutions are increasing the availability of suitable affordable housing and addressing other underlying causes of homelessness.

“Councils want to help everyone at risk of homelessness and to support those who are homeless into accommodation as soon as possible. However, legislation alone will not resolve homelessness - the causes are complex and range from the economic and social to the personal.”

Lord Porter said social housing was critical if councils were to house people who are homeless or at risk. “But the availability of social rented council housing has halved since 1994. We’ve got 69,000 people already currently living in temporary accommodation and more than a million extra on council waiting lists. If we are to succeed then we need to address the gaps between household incomes and spiralling rents, and resume our role as a major builder of affordable homes.”