Authors:LAG
Created:2017-05-01
Last updated:2023-09-18
Homelessness Reduction Bill receives royal assent
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Administrator
One of the last bills to receive royal assent before the election was the Homelessness Reduction Bill, which became an Act on 27 April 2017. It is due to come into force in April 2018. It was originally introduced as a private members’ bill by the Conservative MP Bob Blackman. Backed by Crisis, the national housing charity for homeless people, the bill received support from the government and opposition parties. The legislation will transform how local councils deal with homeless people. Councils will be required to assess people at risk of being made homeless 56 days before they lose their home and local authorities will have to find alternative accommodation if a person is unable to stay in his/her home.
Andrew Arden QC, one of the leading authorities on homelessness law, welcomed the Act, saying it ‘is arguably the most positive change in England since the 1977 Act itself. It enhances duties towards those not in priority need and enhances authorities’ duties to focus on the needs of individuals and to at least try to help them to obtain or keep housing, which ought not only to help more people avoid street homelessness but also to increase internal pressure within local authorities to find new ways of providing housing for their communities’. However, he observed: ‘England remains behind Scotland, which has abolished priority need, and Wales, which has laid the ground for phasing out intentionality. There remains a very long way to go before parliament recognises and accepts that everyone needs a home, whether or not they have children, are elderly or are otherwise vulnerable.’
In January, Marcus Jones, the minister with responsibility for homelessness, announced that a total of £61m would be made available to local councils to meet their responsibilities under the legislation.