Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Conclusion 12
Third Report - Exempt Accommodation
Published 27 Oct 2022
Paragraph 82
Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Exempt Accommodation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The dearth of data on exempt accommodation shows how successive Governments have been caught sleeping. The Government does not know how much exempt accommodation there is or how many people live in exempt accommodation. The Government claims that poor providers are a minority but has no data to back this up. The Government does not know how many providers are regulated and by which regulators. We know there have been acute problems in Birmingham, for example, which the then Minister for Welfare Delivery said were not happening across the country. Without data, however, it has been very difficult to ascertain the extent of these problems across the country. We welcome the data review commissioned by the Government, but it will only provide a snapshot in time. We also welcome the steps the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is taking to improve data collection, but since this will apply only to new claimants it will take time for a reliable national picture to emerge.
From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Third Report - Exempt Accommodation (HC 21), paragraph 82, 27 October 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 27 June 2023 (deadline 27 December 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it "strongly welcome[s]" the Committee's recommendations and is supporting the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Bill, which it believes, "subject to Royal Assent", will address many of the issues raised.
- On national standards and licensing, the government says it will "formally consult" with the sector to develop the licensing scheme and national standards for support "as soon as possible after Royal Assent".
- On mandatory registration of all providers with the Regulator of Social Housing, it gives its reasons, including the risk of reclassification of the sector as public, and considers the Bill's measures "better placed" to provide oversight.
- On rent caps, it says it "cannot effectively determine a standardised rent cap at this point", citing the complexity and range of housing models in the sector.
- On data, it says research on the size, cost and demand of the sector will be published "by the end of 2023".