Homelessness plan could ‘shift’ costs to councils
0Councils could face increased costs as a result of a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) plan to slash the number of schemes giving free advice to people threatened with homelessness, according to the Law Centres Network. The network has launched a legal challenge against the plans to reduce the number of Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes in England and Wales from 113 to 47. Speaking to Public Finance magazine, Nimrod Ben-Cnaan, head of policy and profile at LCN, said: “If people find it harder to access legal aid or follow-on services, local authorities will inevitably bear the brunt of this. Be it people made homeless following an eviction or providing additional support to their children, while also losing council tax revenue, this change by the MoJ, which is not even intended to produce savings, would end up shifting policy costs onto local government.”
