21 Jul London Resets the Standard for Temporary Accommodation

Every year around 3,000 homeless households across London are placed in emergency temporary accommodation (nightly paid B&B or studios) while Local Authorities work to support them into more permanent arrangements.

The WLA and its Commissioning Alliance, in collaboration with the London Boroughs,  are delivering  a new pan-London service that will inspect all Bed & Breakfast and Studio properties used by councils for temporary accommodation on an annual basis, to ensure they meet required housing standards. The new ‘Setting the Standard’ inspections service has been commissioned by the London Housing Directors Group, with the support of London Councils.  Cllr Darren Rodwell, London Councils Executive Member for Housing and Planning said:

“Housing is absolutely central to the quality of life of our residents, and as councils our foremost priority is to ensure that everyone can live in safe and decent accommodation. We see this clearly today more than ever. I am therefore delighted that the London boroughs are taking forward this initiative and working together towards addressing a collective problem. My hope is that this programme proves to be a demonstration of the benefits of collaboration, improving property standards and management practices right across the capital and creating positive changes in peoples’ day-to-day lives.”

Jamie Carswell and Jackie Odunoye, Co-Chairs of the London Housing Directors’ Group said:

“London Housing Directors are very pleased to be taking forward this joint initiative, working collaboratively as boroughs to ensure we can better enforce standards in this part of the nightly paid temporary accommodation sector and assure ourselves of the quality of accommodation. The level of collaboration between boroughs for this project demonstrates our determination to find new and better ways of working to improve outcomes for residents and we look forward to working together to make sure this new initiative is a success.”

Setting the Standard links together a dedicated central inspections team, with a new, purpose-built IT system to share inspections data across the participating boroughs. The project secured a £236k grant from The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Greater London Authority (GLA) in 2020 to deliver on these aims.

By July 2020, an unprecedented 31 London have signed up to the project, making this a truly pan-London mission.