Homelessness Prevention Act centre stage at Locata’s Spring Housing Event

Housing officers from 27 local authority and housing association organisations attended Locata’s second annual housing event in Derby on April 28.

Locata’s Spring Housing Event 2017 focused on the delivery of homelessness prevention and advice services in the context of the Homelessness Reduction Act, which had received Royal Assent the day before and just became law.

Delegates to the free one-day seminar heard in detail what the Act will mean to local authority officers on the front line. Speakers also covered the strategic, service delivery and budgetary pressures faced by all the organisations involved.

Andy Gale, Housing Consultant, was the key note speaker and delivered a masterclass on the implications of the new legislation. His presentation is available for download below. He has also written several well laid out pro-forma templates for Councillor/Chief Officer reports on the impact of the Act and an action plan example that can be downloaded for free here.

Download Andy Gale’s templates

Download template

Delegates also heard also heard an excellent presentation from Mike Wright, Chair of the Greater Manchester Housing Needs Group, who set out his team’s vision for Manchester as they consider a sub-regional approach to tackling and addressing Manchester’s homelessness challenges.

Tracy Hendren and Lindsay Megson from the National Practitioner Support Service provided an overview of the new Act and their team’s plans to support local authorities deliver the new requirements.

Peter Riley, Managing Director of Locata, gave an overview of Locata’s growth from a simple choice based lettings system working for a single scheme 15 years ago to a business with 45 products in its portfolio serving 23 schemes nationwide formed from 82 local authorities and hundreds of housing associations.

Peter also set out the work Locata is currently undertaking to ensure its customers are fully prepared for the Government’s new data requirements under the Act.

“The Government is going to require a line-by-line record of applicant cases each month containing six files of data – personal information, main details, prevention activities, relief activities, temporary accommodation and reviews,” he explained.

“Our system already carries 75% of the requirement and we are working hard to ensure the remaining 25% is included soon.”

The key presentations given on the day are available for download here:

Andy Gale
Homelessness
Reduction Act