Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for
Communities and Local Government what advice has been given to local
authorities on accepting service families who have received a notice to vacate
from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation; and whether information for
divorcing families is included in any such advice.
Kris Hopkins: The Government takes its responsibilities
to service personnel and their families very seriously. DCLG wrote to local authorities
reminding them that statutory homelessness guidance says they should not insist
upon a court order for possession to establish that entitlement to occupy
Services Accommodation has ended but instead should ensure that service
personnel receive timely and comprehensive advice on the housing options
available as soon as they receive a “Certificate of Cessation of Entitlement to
Occupy Service Living Accommodation”.
The homelessness legislation also affords a person who is
vulnerable as a result of having been a member of Her Majesty's services
priority need for accommodation.
Last year we changed the law by regulation so that former
personnel with urgent housing needs are always given 'additional preference'
(high priority) for social housing; and councils are prevented from applying
local connection requirements to disqualify members of the armed forces and
those within five years of leaving the Services from their housing waiting
list.
We have issued new statutory allocations guidance which
makes clear that, when adopting a residency test for social housing, we expect
local authorities to consider the wider needs of the armed forces community,
and to be sympathetic to changing family circumstances, recognising, for
example, that the spouses and partners of Service personnel can also be
disadvantaged by the need to move from base to base.
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