Recommendations published by Senedd Committees on the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocations Bill

The Local Government and Housing Committee has today published its report on the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill. This follows reports delivered in the last week by the Finance Committee and the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee.

We are pleased to see the reports reference several RSL's concerns, including:

• The agreement that RSLs should be aware of a tenant’s support needs before being required to accept an accommodation referral from a local authority, including a recommendation that stringent guidance should be produced to support this practice.

• Assurance that the Cabinet Secretary will bring forward an amendment to require the Welsh Government to provide guidance on the new duty to accept a request to accommodate a homeless person, including circumstances where it would be appropriate to reject such a request.

• The commitment from the Cabinet Secretary to consider amending the Bill to allow for specified types of social housing allocation to take place outside the common housing register.

• The anticipated cost of providing help to retain accommodation is significantly under-estimated in the RIA, and the Welsh Government should undertake further analysis of the potential need under the duty.

We remain concerned, however, that some of the challenges we have identified will not be addressed on the face of the Bill. We will be engaging further with the Welsh Government and Members of the Senedd on this.

We remain a committed partner in delivering a homelessness system where being homeless is rare, brief, and unrepeated. We look forward to working with others in this next stage of the Bill to ensure greater operational certainty and financial realism for the social housing sector.