Ban B&Bs For Teenage Care Leavers, Says Parliamentary Report

Young adults leaving care should not be placed in bed and breakfast accommodation, a report published by the parliamentary education committee has recommended. Into independence, not out of care: 16 plus looks at options for 16-year-olds leaving the care system and moving towards independence and calls for an outright ban on bed and breakfast placements for young looked after people. The report says that bed and breakfast continues to be used by councils to house young people leaving care, despite the Department for Education (DfE) previously saying this is ‘not suitable’. Addressing the issue, it states: ‘We are deeply troubled by the continued use of B&Bs [for young people in care]. Far from being merely unsuitable, B&Bs can present an environment which feels unsafe and threatening to a young person.’ Download the report from the House of Commons website.

Dramatic Rise of Families Forced Out Of London

The number of homeless households forced to move outside London has risen by nearly 40 per cent in one year, leaked figures have shown. An unpublished report by umbrella body London Councils seen by Inside Housing also details how boroughs are starting to use new legal powers to push homeless households into the private sector. The draft Inter Borough Accommodation Agreement report reveals that there were 336 placements of homeless households outside the capital in the last quarter of the 2013/14 financial year - up from 211 in the same period the previous year. This equates to a threefold increase in the number of placements outside the capital since records began in the first quarter of 2012/13, when 113 were recorded. There have been a total of 1,918 out of London placements since then. Read more on Inside Housing.