Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation Bill – Deep Dive 4

This deep dive into the Bill concerns the provision of temporary accommodation to homeless applicants while their application is being considered.  This is called “interim accommodation”.  Such accommodation is required to be “suitable”.  The 2014 Act, s 59(1) requires suitable to be considered by a local authority having regard to a range of other enactments.  However, it does not do so by reference to Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016.  Cl 30 of the Bill rectifies this omission and requires an authority also to have regard to Part 4 of the 2016 Act (and provisions made under that Act).  The bit in parenthesis in the previous sentence is also relevant because it relates to all the other enactments, and there has (for example) been ongoing consideration of the assessment and enforcement guidance under the Housing Act 2004.  This just neatens things out.

However, the interesting thing about the Bill about interim accommodation is in the next clause which requires the Welsh Ministers to publish a report on the use and condition of interim accommodation that is secured under section 68 and section 75 by local housing authorities in Wales.  This is a five yearly requirement.  This (five yearly report) might be considered to be a somewhat less than onerous task, but there is a requirement on authorities to provide relevant information to the Welsh Ministers, which will enable them to keep an eye on the issues to which it relates.

These provisions may seem a little ephemeral and perhaps even superfluous.  Perhaps they are, but one can make an argument for their significance.  The issue of the provision of temporary accommodation underpins much of the problems which exist in the homelessness system.  There is an inadequate amount of it; this means that authorities may have to use accommodation which stretches the definition of suitable, or accommodation out of area / far from applicant’s existing homes.  Travelodges and other types of hotels are regularly used in England, and B&Bs.  However, there is quite limited information collected about what accommodation is used, and I would argue that poor accommodation used at such a critical moment sets the tone for what applicants make of the system.  It doesn’t do much for the whole idea behind the the Bill if the accommodation quality is poor.  And, we are dealing with often vulnerable households and children here.  So, if the requirement to provide this information makes authorities re-thing its procurement policies/practices, that is a pretty good thing.

Nobody is asking for the impossible (although see Imam v Croydon LBC on the claim of impossibility).  And we know about the issues with Welsh housing stock (recently highlighted again in the Will Hayward newsletter – another must-read).  The law provides quite a loose framework on suitability simply accepting that people can be asked to put up with quite a lot in the short term – see, for example, Ali v Birmingham CC/Moran v Manchester CC.  So, there is little incentive on local authorities to give this area the attention it deserves – see also, Alibkhiet v Brent LBC [2018] EWCA Civ 2742.

In other words, this is a provision about which, for once, I am positive.