'Disappointing' councils fail homeless people

Herefordshire was the only council rated "excellent" in the report, Homelessness: Responding to the New Agenda. Shepway and Stockport were deemed "poor" and the majority of other councils "fair".

The report's authors said the main problems were:

• high spending on bed and breakfast accommodation
  
• poor record-keeping and decision-making
  
• bad coordination with housing associations after stock transfer.

Katharine Knox, one of the authors, said: "There needs to be more attention to prevention of homelessness as well as improving services for homeless people."

She said there were sometimes conflicts between transfer housing associations and councils over homeless people. "A housing association might say 'we do not want this person because they have rent arrears and the council has a duty to house them', but where do they put them?"

Knox continued: "If councils could focus on getting people out of bed and breakfast, they would save money and could use it for housing advice services."

There needs to be more attention to prevention as well as improving services for homeless people

Katharine Knox, report author

Councils had "a lot of work to do" if they were to meet the demands of the Homelessness Act and Supporting People Programme, the report said. The former requires councils to remove all families from bed and breakfasts by April 2004.

However, Knox said councils had promising prospects for improvement. She said: "It's about strategies being a basis for good services, not just another policy."

The report judged the performance of 50 local authorities using Audit Commission inspection reports into homelessness and housing advice services and visits to 10 authorities.

Paul Jenks, chair of the Local Government Association's housing executive, said: "I'm encouraged that the commission recognised that most authorities have good or excellent prospects for improvement.