Extracts from Lords debate on Housing Strategy - Mar 24
Thursday, 25 March 2021 07:54
Lord Shipley (LD) [V]: ...There are several core values in the
report. Homes and communities should be sustainable, safe, stable,
sociable and satisfying. All of these are important words with
which I concur. I will say something about safety first. The most
reverend Primate the Archbishop of York has talked recently about
resetting our compass. I agree. We should not accept homelessness,
with all the risks to personal safety that it leads to. I wonder if
the Minister might commit to speeding...Request free trial
(LD) [V]: ...There are several core values in the
report. Homes and communities should be sustainable, safe, stable,
sociable and satisfying. All of these are important words with
which I concur. I will say something about safety first. The most
reverend Primate the has talked recently about resetting our compass. I
agree. We should not accept homelessness, with all the risks to
personal safety that it leads to. I wonder if the Minister might
commit to speeding up the scrapping of the Vagrancy Act 1824,
which makes it a crime to sleep rough. It belongs to another era,
yet it is still being used to prosecute people who suffer from a
variety of personal problems...
(LD) [V]:...There are a large number of
homeless people in our community. One of them has been sleeping in
our church on an annual basis. My noble friend raised the Vagrancy Act The vast majority of
the homeless do not choose this way of life and the provision of
overnight hostels is essential. Anything has to be better than a
shop doorway...
The Minister of State, Home Office and Ministry of
Housing, Communities and Local Government () (Con):...In response to the noble Lord,
, on scrapping the Vagrancy Act
1824, I am only a humble Minister but I
reckon it should be consigned to the dustbin of history. However,
the Government recognise that it is not easy to do that without a
review; we are in the course of carrying out that review, which has
required extensive stakeholder engagement with the police, local
authorities, the homelessness sector and those with lived
experience. We will make an announcement on our formal position in
due course...
The :...I will certainly commit to supporting the
abolition of the Vagrancy Act I agree with the
Minister when he says that it should be consigned to history—or to
the bin, I think...
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