15 September 2006
A London borough has been urged to cut costs by reducing the number of homeless families it places with private landlords.
Westminster City Council was told by its own independent commission that it should make greater use of homes owned or leased by registered social landlords, which are more likely to be available on a long-term basis.
'The current system is costly and becoming ever more so,' says the commission, set up by the council last year to look at Westminster's housing shortage. 'Some of this accommodation is clearly unsatisfactory and the taxpayer is not getting value for money.'
Last month, 3,083 homeless families were living in temporary accommodation in Westminster. The cost to the council of using private landlords is more than £33m per year — part of which is reclaimed from the government.
The commission, chaired by Lord Richard Best, makes a range of recommendations to tackle homelessness and attract more middle-income families to the borough.
They include offering RSL tenants incentives to move on as their income rises, so freeing properties. It criticises the Housing Corporation for failing to encourage the construction of family-size homes.
The report was published as new figures showed homelessness is continuing to fall across England. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government, 93,910 households were in temporary accommodation at the end of June — 7% fewer than 12 months ago.
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