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Homelessness Reduction Act to commence from April next year
The Homelessness Reduction Act will come into force from April next year, the Department for Communities and Local Government has told councils.
The government has set aside £61m to distribute between councils to fund the new responsibilities they will face under the act, including intervening at an earlier stage to prevent homelessness and an expected increase in reviews when a person is not deemed to be priority need. But peers and housing experts have warned £61m will not cover the increased costs councils will face.
In a letter to councils, homelessness minister Marcus Jones said the formula for how the funding will be distributed is being finalised and allocations will be announced in the autumn with the first payments expected to be made in the winter.
Government officials have been reviewing the Homelessness Code of Guidance with the input of a working group of councils and other homelessness organisations, and plan to publish a draft for consultation in the autumn, with the final code published next spring.
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The government plans to make regulations under the act, including the duty for a public authority to refer a person who is homeless or at risk of homelessness to a council.
The homelessness data collection system needs to be changed, Mr Jones said, which will generate “much richer” data. The government’s homelessness data was stripped of its “national statistics” status by the UK Statistics Authority in 2015 because it was found to be “potentially misleading”.
Additional funding will be made available to change the data collection system, Mr Jones said, but he did not reveal the amount.
