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Homeless lettings up as councils strive to meet 2012 target |
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Tuesday, 20 November 2007 |
Councils are renting an increasing proportion of their properties to homeless people in a bid to meet a key homelessness target.
Latest figures from Scotland’s chief statistician show that in 2006-07, 34 per cent of all local authority lettings were to homeless households, compared to 32 per cent for 2005-06. This represents a substantial increase on ten years ago, when just 12 per cent of properties went to homeless applicants.
The percentage of lets to homeless people is a key indicator in measuring local authorities' progress towards the 2012 target for the removal of the priority need test in homelessness legislation.
The figures also show a continued decline in the number of Right to Buy sales. The latest figure of 8,500 – which includes authorities that have opted for stock transfers – represents a drop of almost a fifth since 2005-06.
New build completions are also down on the last two years.
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