Mr Simon Burns – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Simon Burns on 2014-01-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families were based in temporary accommodation in (a) Chelmsford constituency and (b) Essex in each quarter of the last five years.

Kris Hopkins

[Holding Reply: Monday 27 January 2014]

The Department does not collect constituency level data. A table has been placed in the Library of the House with data for Chelmsford City Council and Essex. To assist my rt. hon. Friend, I have provided quarterly data back for the last ten years; the table illustrates how there are fewer households in temporary accommodation than the average under the last Administration.

This Government has retained a strong homelessness safety net protected in law, supported by £470 million in the current Spending Review period to prevent and tackle homelessness, rough sleeping and repossessions. We are seeing this investment making an impact with households now spending on average 7 months less in temporary accommodation than at the start of 2010.

We have also made some changes to the rules under the Localism Act to enable local authorities to end the main homelessness duty by arranging an offer of suitable accommodation in the private rented sector. This means households are likely to spend less time in temporary accommodation waiting for social housing to become available.