Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Deferred
Issue guidance discouraging out-of-area property acquisition and consult on placement distance limits.
Recommendation
The Government must issue guidance to discourage local authorities from acquiring properties outside of their authority boundaries to use as temporary accommodation. Where this is not possible, the local authority must notify prospective host local authorities before it purchases any properties out-of-area. The Government should consult on introducing a limit on the distance of all out-of-area placements. (Recommendation, Paragraph 62)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government deflected the recommendation, stating the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) is developing a long-term homelessness strategy and will review its purpose after publication, but did not address the specific requests for guidance on out-of-area property acquisition, pre-purchase notification, or consulting on distance limits.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
25. Suitability legislation and guidance sets out that the local authority should only use out of area placements when it is not reasonably practicable to place the applicant locally. However, we recognise this is increasingly challenging. 26. The Government has made clear that homes funded by the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) should be acquired within the local authority’s own area as far as possible. Our LAHF 3 prospectus makes clear that this should be the case, unless otherwise agreed with both the other local authority and by the Department by exception. 27. The Government will consider ways to further define where out of area placements are acceptable and expectations on placing and receiving local authorities.
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