§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for the Environment, in view of the fact that under the recent legislation on homelessness the Forest Health District Council is being asked to provide council homes for common-law wives or girl friends of United States airmen stationed at nearby air bases who are abandoned by their common-law husbands or men friends leaving the United Kingdom or deserting them, and that the housing department may be compelled to provide them with accommodation at the expense of local people who for long periods have been waiting on the housing list with, in consequence, damaging effects on Anglo-Amercian relations, if he will seek to amend the Act to relieve local authorities from the obligation to provide council houses in such cases.
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§ Mr. ArmstrongThe Housing (Homeless Persons) Act requires the housing authority approached to secure that accommodation is available to those it is satisfied are homeless and in priority need.
The Act itself makes clear there are a number of ways in which this obligation can be fulfilled; it does not necessarily require the allocation of a council house. The Act does not, therefore, require amendment. I have replied to the hon. Member's letter of 20th June about this situation.