ODPM select committee calls for hostels to get their own decent homes standard

The MPs, including Clive Betts and Christine Russell, are part of an ODPM select committee inquiry into homelessness. They told the select committee on Tuesday that the quality of hostel buildings and the services they offer should be required to meet a decency standard.

The group added that the standard should apply to hostels in both the private and the public sectors.

The Salvation Army, which works with rough sleepers, and Nacro, which helps ex-offenders, have welcomed the suggestion.

Tim Bell, chief executive of Nacro Community Enterprise, said: “Private hostels don’t have to comply with the same regulations as those that govern Supporting People services, so it would be a positive move to raise standards in the whole of the hostel sector.

“But if you set a level of accommodation standards you must make sure the support on offer is also of a high quality.”

Homelessness charity Shelter also warned this week that plans to improve housing conditions and regenerate areas in the North of England could be pricing local people out of the market and contributing to a rise in homelessness.

Private hostels don’t have to comply with the same regulations, so it would raise standards in the whole sector

Tim Bell, Nacro

A new report, titled On the Up?, claimed that housing market renewal pathfinders were pushing up house prices and encouraging property speculation by investors from outside the region.

Shelter warned that thousands of families could be forced out of homes that they own or rent, exacerbating homelessness. According to ODPM figures, homelessness has risen twice as fast in the North of England as in the South over the past six years.

The charity is calling for an urgent review of the market renewal programme to ensure the original aim of creating sustainable communities is achieved.

Hugh Broadbent, chief executive of First Choice Homes, an arm’s-length management organisation based in a pathfinder area in Oldham, said homelessness had increased significantly in Oldham.

The ALMO has had to house people in hostels for the first time in the past three months.