Council Defends Calls to Axe Homelessness Strategy

Hammersmith & Fulham - one of the three councils planning to combine services in a 'tri-borough' London merger - has defended a request it made to the Government to scrap the statutory duty placed on councils to provide a homelessness strategy. In a submission to the Government - as part of its response to the Coalition's calls for ideas to reduce the regulatory burden placed on councils - it called for an end to the strategy. Other suggestions on how the Government can reduce regulatory burdens, it said, include: changing the law so that a High Court order is not needed to evict squatters and cutting the amount of paperwork needed to take action against noise nuisance neighbours. The homelessness strategy requires councils to set out their approach to tackling homeless. The council believes the production of such a strategy should be at councils' discretion. A council spokesman said: "We want to focus all our effort on front line services, with officers working on homeless interventions and not spending months producing reams of paperwork and strategies.” Read more on 24dash.