The Homelessness Reduction Bill has now been made an Act of parliament having received Royal Assent on April 27th. Many feared that this Bill would not be made an Act prior to the dissolution of Parliament for the general election called by Theresa May and might be lost. However, this Bill in addition to another 21 Bills have now been passed in a last ditch set of approvals.
The Act places a positive obligation on councils to give support to resolve homelessness, as well as introducing measures to prevent homelessness in the first place. The Government has committed to provide £61 million to local authorities to meet the additional costs of providing the help needed to comply with this Act.
For landlords and tenants the Act does a great deal to improve the rehousing of tenants at the termination of a tenancy. Local authorities will be required to treat tenants as homeless at a much earlier stage which may see tenants rehoused prior to landlords incurring the cost and delay of instructing a bailiff.
We do not know when this Act will be in force, it may be later this year. However, only time will tell whether it will be as successful as it is hoped. Once it is in force, whether you are a landlord, agent or tenant if there is a risk of homelessness then the local authority should be contacted and help sought at the earliest opportunity.
