Government Praise for Homelessness Service

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Aug 2006

Milton Keynes Council's housing team has been selected as the Regional Champion for Tackling Homelessness. This is in recognition of years of hard work and striking efforts in reducing homelessness in the city through the development of alternative housing options.

The Government's vote of confidence means that the housing team will now be offering support and guidance to other local authorities in the region and beyond to assist them (and their partners) improve their work in prevention and administration of homelessness.

Cllr Irene Henderson, Lib Dem Cabinet member for housing, said: "I am delighted that the hard work, dedication and the outstanding service provided by the housing team has paid off. We are looking forward to further improve the service and support other local authorities to achieve similar status. We have worked with key partners to deliver this service and would like to thank them for their involvement Midsummer Housing Association, CAB, Shelter, Youth Housing Network, and the Health Service. "

MKC Housing was selected as a Regional Champion following its successes in:

• reducing the number of homeless acceptances from 913 in 2003/4 to 366 in 2005/6;

• reducing the numbers in temporary accommodation from 1430 in April 2005 to 817 in April 2006-07-17;

• achieving Bed and Breakfast targets (since the introduction of the " 6 week rule " in 2004, no family or single person has been in Bed and Breakfast for longer than 6 weeks, the average stay currently being 1.3 weeks).

Other achievements that contributed to the housing team's selection as a centre of excellence included:

• the introduction of our own Homebond scheme to source private rental accommodation (we currently have 176 properties in this scheme);

• and our partnership with the lettings agents, GPR, who also source private rented property. The two schemes together provide choice for those who need housing.