Coalition to weaken homeless protection


by Sunder Katwala    
8:30 am - November 4th 2010

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The government intends to change the definition of homelessness, weakening the statutory obligations on local councils, as part of its housing benefit changes, DWP minister Lord Freud told a House of Commons Select Committee.

The Guardian reports:

Freud said it could be “quite valuable” to revise the current criteria in place, arguing: “We have found it very difficult to define homelessness in this country. The estimates [of homelessness] go from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands depending on who you are talking to.”

…

“Clearly the common view of homelessness is nothing over one’s head at all. The statutory definitions are different to that, and they are adequate housing.”

Westminster Council had already written to the government to propose a series of specific changes which would weaken the statutory homelessness duties faced by councils which the Council argues are necessary if it is to be able to cope with the impact of the government’s housing benefit cuts.

Supporters and critics of the government’s housing policy have suggested that its reforms will almost certainly lead it to weaken these statutory obligations on homelessness. Freud is the first minister to publicly begin to argue for this in public.

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About the author
Sunder Katwala is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He is the director of British Future, a think-tank addressing identity and integration, migration and opportunity. He was formerly secretary-general of the Fabian Society.
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Reader comments


1. Luis Enrique

I recommend the most recent Dispatches is about homeless children and is available to watch online on 4OD.

2. Sevillista

The current statutory homelessness legislation is built on the assumption that people have a right to live in the local authority in which they have a local connection (a feature of support for the poor streatching back to the
Elizabethan Poor Laws of the 16th Century).

The Housing Benefit changes are built on the assumption that there are certain
local authority areas that the poor have no right to live in – housing in cities (especially decent housing) should be allocated on a market basis, with the poor living in cramped, overcrowded houses in disrepair on the outskirts. This is necessary in the Government’s view to incentivise the working poor, disabled and elderly to work harder and/or get better jobs, and to make life fairer for the middle-class who find that life is stacked against them.

The changes are inconsistent with statutory homelessness legislation. The legislation must be changed to avoid the inconsistency – and deal with the fact that homelessness – as currently defined in law – will increase as a result of the Tory plans.

The responsibility of local authorities to house their poor and the rights of every citizen to have uncrowded homes that meet a basic standard
of decency needs to be broken to solve the inconsistency.

We’re all in it together.

3. 92dp064

I agree, Dispatches programme was excellent. Nice interview here too: http://bit.ly/ax2znI
I also see Grant Shapps has been adding to the situation, claiming homelessness rose to record levels under labour. All it does is makes their point easier when they change the definition of homelessness.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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