§ Margaret MoranTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what further measures he is taking to increase supply of temporary accommodation to replace the use of bed-and-breakfast for the homeless. [65184]
§ Mr. McNultyIn March 2002 we announced a £35 million programme to help local authorities ensure that by March 2004 no homeless family with children is in bed-and-breakfast hotels (B&B) for more than six weeks.
On 17 June 2002 almost £25 million was allocated to 44 high B&B using local authorities to assist them reduce numbers in B&B. The funding is being used on a range of initiatives to procure alternative temporary accommodation to B&B and on measures to prevent 562W homelessness occurring. We are now working with the next 40 or so highest using B&B authorities to see how we can assist them in reducing numbers.
In addition, all local authorities will benefit from the changes the Department for Work and Pensions has recently made to housing benefit subsidy levels which make local authority leasing of self-contained temporary accommodation much more financially viable than B&B hotels.