§ Linda PerhamTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to provide resources to house the families with children in Redbridge who reside in temporary accommodation, including bed and breakfast accommodation. [80542]
§ Mrs. RocheIn June this year, the London Borough of Redbridge was allocated just over 426,000 to help them reduce the number of homeless families with children in Bed and Breakfast hotels (B&B) and to meet the national commitment of ensuring that by March 2004 no such household is in B&B, other than in an emergency, and even then for no more than six weeks. Rebridge will also benefit from the increased housing benefit subsidy rates, estimated nationally at £10 million, introduced in April this year. This provides additional subsidy to local114W authorities to secure self-contained temporary accommodation, rather than B&B, for homeless households.
The net costs to local authorities of securing accommodation for homeless applicants, apart from those costs related to the use of authorities' own housing stock, are funded through general grant. Grant is distributed through Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) and local authorities' responsibilities in this area are contained within the Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services (EPCS) SSA block. The London Borough of Redbridge received an increase in it's EPCS SSA of £1.35m which equals a 3 per cent, increase. For local authorities overall, the EPCS SSA is set to increase by an average of 4 per cent, a year up to 2005/06.