Chamber and committees

Homelessness legislation sets out the steps local authorities must take in investigating homelessness and this includes the ‘local connection’ test. The local authority has a power, but not a duty, to refer an applicant to another local authority if it thinks the applicant does not have a local connection with it and does have a local connection with another authority.

Legislation is supported by the statutory Code of Guidance on Homelessness, to which local authorities must refer when making decisions. This includes stating that in exercising its discretion to use its power on local connection, a local authority should take particular care to operate in a non-discriminatory way.

The HL1 statistics collected by local authorities and published by the Scottish Government, also provides more detailed information on homelessness applications.

The Scottish Government does not keep this level of information. It is for the local authority-led Housing Options hubs to plan and facilitate their own meetings and develop and implement their own workplans. Scottish Government officials attend where required.

The Scottish Government organises regular National seminars for Housing Options hubs and other local authority representatives, with the involvement of third sector organisations.

Data on average time spent in temporary accommodation is not currently available.

From 1 April 2016, Local Authorities began submitting household level data on temporary accommodation via the HL3 return to the Scottish Government.

This data gives placement level information on temporary accommodation and will enable analysis of the time spent in temporary accommodation. Once the data quality has been assured this data will be used to monitor and publish information on the use of temporary accommodation.

The responsibility for the allocation of housing in the social rented sector lies with the local authority or housing association concerned. In law social housing landlords are required to give reasonable preference, or priority, to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. Social landlords must allocate housing based on an assessment of an applicant’s housing needs against its allocation policy and within the legal framework.

While it is for the landlords to decide who is allocated any particular house, an overall increase in a landlord’s social housing stock will enable the landlord to house more applicants in need of social housing. We as a Government are working hard to do just that. We have committed to delivery of 35,000 social rented homes over this Parliamentary term, a 75% increase on our previous social housing target which we not only achieved but exceeded. These sit within our wider 50,000 affordable homes target, to which we have pledged over £3 billion of funding.

The number of social rented homes within each local authority area over the current target period will depend on the priorities of local authorities as identified in their Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA), Local Housing Strategies (LHS) and Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs).

Local authorities are required by law to prepare an LHS, supported by an assessment of housing need and demand. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 places a statutory duty on each local authority to carry out an assessment of homelessness in its area and to prepare and submit to Ministers, a strategy (as part of the LHS) for the prevention and alleviation of homelessness.

Data on the number of homeless people using temporary accommodation in each year is not currently available.

The HL2 data collection provides a snapshot of the number of households in temporary accommodation at the end of each quarter. This is published on a
bi-annual basis. The most recent published data is from 30 September 2016 and is available in Table 8 of the publication Homelessness in Scotland: Update to 30 September 2016 http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00512963.xls.

The following table shows the average (mean) time in weeks from date of application to date of duty discharge/case closure, for homeless applications assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness and closed in 2015-16, by local authority.

Source: HL1 dataset as at 25-05-16

The Scottish Government has taken a number of actions as a result of delivering the workplan and recommendations of the Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group:

• We are working with local authorities to identify models of temporary accommodation which can improve outcomes for homeless households. This is against the background of a reduction of funding made available for temporary accommodation as a result of UK Government welfare reform. A formula for distribution of funding for 2017-18, which was transferred from UK Government to the Scottish Government for temporary accommodation to local authorities, was agreed with COSLA in March 2017.

• A number of steps have also been taken to strengthen links between homelessness and health services, including work to link data to improve understanding and inform policy responses. This has been alongside supporting the promotion of innovative approaches to addressing homelessness amongst those with more complex needs such as the Housing First approach and the need for Psychologically Informed Environments.

• All of this is also linked to our continued promotion of the Housing Options approach and financial support for local authorities, including providing additional funding for the development of a training toolkit which will involve a number of different policy areas beyond housing. The toolkit will assist to ensure a consistent response on Housing Options across Scotland.

Statistical information on the operation of housing options approaches is collected by local authorities (Prevent 1) and published by the Scottish Government. This and the HL1 statistics on homelessness applications provide ways that the operation of the approach can be measured.

However, we also ensure that statistical information is underpinned by regular engagement and sharing of best practice on homelessness prevention between the Scottish Government, Housing Option Hubs, other partners and homeless people themselves to help measure progress.

Homelessness legislation sets out the requirements on local authorities to ensure a homeless person can access accommodation in a timely matter.

The local authority has a legal duty to provide a minimum of temporary accommodation and advice and assistance to all those it finds to be homeless or threatened with homelessness. If the household is unintentionally homeless, it is entitled to settled accommodation. Additionally, the statutory Code of Guidance on Homelessness supports local authorities in their implementation of these legislative requirements.

The Scottish Government do not collect data on the geographical location of where homeless people have been housed by a local authority.