Young Homeless People in Rural Areas (Hansard, 27 October 1999)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty)

The Government welcome this report, and congratulate Centrepoint on the excellent work it continues to do across the country to tackle homelessness. Rural and urban homelessness share very many essential characteristics, but we recognise that there are some features more distinctive to rural than urban homelessness, such as increased difficulty in accessing advice services, and greater social isolation, due to factors such as geographical remoteness and transport difficulties. We are aware of the needs of socially excluded young people in rural areas. The forthcoming Rural White Paper will address the need to tackle homelessness amongst a wide range of issues and policies affecting rural communities and people.

Homelessness is often a symptom of wider social exclusion, which this Government are committed to tackling. My department is contributing to follow-up 33WA work on the Social Exclusion Unit's reports on Rough Sleeping, and Bricking The Gap. These measures include the extension of the Education Maintenance Allowance to reach young people who are homeless; and the introduction of a new Youth Support Service, which will provide personal advisors whose role will be to support young people and their families.

My department has set up an official level sounding board with the local authority associations, Shelter, the Chartered Institute of Housing, and others, to develop local homelessness strategies and preventive initiatives, in the context of allocation of social housing. We will also be considering further measures to ensure that housing solutions are sustainable in order to reduce the risk of homelessness reoccurring. We are considering the future of the Single Room Rent as part of the Government's review of Housing Benefit. We will be taking account of all the available research, as well as the implications for public expenditure and work incentives.

The department has also established a Youth Homelessness Action Partnership, again with both the voluntary and statutory sectors, to look at the particular problems faced by young people and to develop proposals for tackling them. Our revised Code of Guidance on the Allocation of Accommodation and Homelessness, due to be published around the end of the year, will recommend local authorities to treat young care leavers, especially, as being vulnerable under the homelessness legislation.