Temporary Housing

The demands on temporary housing have reached crisis point, with homeless families being forced into substandard and sometimes dangerous accommodation, whilst the costs involved are pushing many local authorities into financial distress.

The aim of this survey is to identify the legal barriers to the provision of more - and better quality - temporary housing while relieving the strain on councils.

Your answers will remain anonymous and only published in aggregated form. Please feel free to skip any questions that you feel unable to answer.

If you have any queries, please contact derek.bedlow@localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk.

Thank you for your participation.
1.What best describes your role?
2.Which of the following initiatives is your authority using to provide more and better quality temporary housing to the best of your knowledge (please tick all that apply)?
3.If you have or are considering institutional capital as a way of funding more temporary accommodation, how easy do you find it to connect with the right individuals in those institutions?
4.What steps is your authority taking to try to reduce the amount of households in temporary accommodation (please tick all that apply)?
5.Before placing households in Temporary Accommodation, does your authority assess the quality and suitability of the accommodation?
6.What is the average length of time a person or household stays in nightly paid temporary accommodation?
7.What is the average length of time a person or household stays in self-contained temporary accommodation?
8.How much of a problem do you find the following obstacles to meeting the demand for temporary housing? (Scale one-to-five, five being most severe, one insignificant or irrelevant)
5 - Most Severe
4
3
2
1 - Least Severe
Planning law
Lack of supply of social homes
Lack of supply of private rented sector homes
Local Housing Allowance rates/caps
Human rights law
Regulatory limitations (e.g. preventing conversion of social housing stock to temporary social housing)
Housing allocations law and policy
Housing safety law (e.g. Awaab’s Law, Building Safety Act)
Court backlogs
Lack of resources in enforcement of housing and environmental health legislation to help sustain tenancies
9.Which do you think of the following would be most effective in addressing the need for temporary housing (please rank up to three in order)?
1
2
3
Changing planning policy to enable more TA to be provided
The use of modular (prefabricated) temporary housing
Purchasing or leasing of properties on open market or from social housing providers within the borough
Purchasing or leasing of properties on open market or from social housing providers outside the borough
Compulsory purchase of empty properties
Conversion or use of student accomodation
Partnering with private sector organisations or institutional capital
Use of hotel accommodation
Refurbishment of existing empty housing stock
Anything else (open question with space to give comment)
Building more affordable housing