Helping homeless will add pressure, say Telford council bosses
New legislation to tackle homelessness could place Telford & Wrekin Council under even more financial pressure, bosses have warned.
The Homelessness Reduction Act represents the biggest change in legislation on the subject for 40 years.
It transforms the help councils are expected to provide to all homeless people and requires councils to try and prevent people from becoming homeless by intervening early.
Key measures include an extension of the time during which a council should treat someone as threatened with homelessness from 28 to 56 days.
It also includes a new duty to prevent and relieve homelessness for all people, regardless of priority need, and providing a personalised housing plan to identify actions in order to prevent or relieve homelessness.
There will also be a new duty on public services to notify a local authority if they come into contact with someone they think may be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. To help Telford & Wrekin Council deliver the requirements of the act, new sources of funding have been made available by the government.
The New Burdens Fund will provide £178,579 over three financial years to 2018/19.
Telford & Wrekin Council’s housing and enforcement boss, councillor Richard Overton, welcomed the legislation but said he was worried about how the delivery of the new duties would be resourced.
He said: “This is a very positive piece of legislation aimed at tackling the whole issue of homelessness, which has to be welcomed.
“It represents a complete change of ethos for local authorities and an estimated 50 per cent increase in workload for our housing team. However, the big issue is with how the delivery of the new duties are resourced. We do not know exactly what the implications will be and the available funding is time limited.
“It may mean we require additional resources to improve the service and it also means we would need some empty properties to allow for emergency admissions. We would however be liable for rent and council tax while those properties are empty.”
A report on the act will be discussed by the council on January 4.
