Finding somewhere to live in England and Wales

In February the Local Government Association responded to a Government report on rough sleepers. The number of people sleeping rough in England has risen by nearly a third between 2014-15 and finding somewhere to liev is likely to get worse as further changes to housing benefit rates for social housing come in to effect.

Several housing associations have said they are no longer financially viable and the National Housing Federation (NHF) has calculated that nearly 2,500 units have so far been scrapped or delayed as sheltered housing providers face losing an average of £68 a week per tenant.

In wales finding somewhere to live is easier. Shelter Cymru report that the new homelessness statistics show that local authorities are managing to successfully prevent homelessness for the majority of households, despite increased workloads.

Housing policy has been devolved to the Assembly, and in 2014 it passed the Housing (Wales) Act. which included a number of changes to homelessness legislation aimed at reducing levels of homelessness by placing prevention at the centre of local authority duties.

In response the Vale of Glamorgan  produced its Local Housing Strategy 2015-20 which continues on the successes of the previous plan published in 2007 and adds a plan to build its own houses for the first time in decades