PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Temporary Accommodation (5 December 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support his Department provides to improve attendance at schools by children whose families are placed in temporary accommodation away from local schools.

Asked by:
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour)

Time spent in temporary accommodation ensures no family is without a roof over their head.

Local authorities should secure accommodation within their own borough so far as is reasonably practicable and take into account the impact a change in location would have on a household, including the possible disruption to jobs and children’s schooling. It is for the local authority to determine the suitability of accommodation on a case by case basis.

But we know we need to do more. This is why we are implementing the most ambitious legislative reform in decades, the Homelessness Reduction Act, in April 2018, which will ensure that more people get the help they need earlier to prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.

We have also replaced DWP’s Temporary Accommodation Management Fee with a Flexible Homelessness Support Grant which local authorities can use more strategically to prevent and tackle homelessness. This amounts to £402 million over the two years from 2017/18.

Devolving the funding to local authorities will improve incentives to move families out of temporary accommodation and into settled accommodation more quickly, and with more certain upfront funding local authorities will be able to tackle homelessness more pro-actively, pushing the balance of the investment away from crisis intervention and towards prevention.

Answered by:
Mr Marcus Jones (Conservative)
11 December 2017