Homeless to be placed in private sector

Local authorities can currently offer homeless people who they have a duty to house under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 private sector accommodation, but the applicant can refuse it.

The Communities and Local Government department says this means only around 7 per cent of homeless cases are housed in the private sector, with around 70 per cent in social housing.

A consultation paper on reform of social housing published today states: ‘People owed the main homelessness duty can therefore effectively insist on being provided with temporary accommodation until offered social housing.

‘We believe this encourages some households to apply as homeless in order to secure reasonable preference and an effective guarantee of being offered social housing.’

The document notes temporary accommodation is expensive and whilst someone has ‘a priority need for accommodation, they may not necessarily need social housing’.

Philippa Roe, cabinet member for housing at Westminster council, said: ‘We are supportive of this measure. We have got 11,000 households on the social housing waiting list and 5,000 households in priority need.

‘We are never going to get through all of those people, and this means we can house them in perfectly good private sector accommodation.’

The consultation document is also seeking views on reforms needed to tackle overcrowding, pointing out 260,000 households in the social rented sector are ‘blighted’ by the problem.

It suggests other proposals in the document will help ease overcrowding, as will measures strengthening home swap provisions.