Housing advice in Scotland

By: Shelter Scotland  Published: July 2002

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 placed a new duty on local authorities to provide advice and information on homelessness to everyone in the local area.

Summary

In March 2002 the Scottish Executive issued guidance on how the new duty in section 2 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 should be implemented. This duty is as follows: 

  • Every local authority must secure that advice and information about (a) homelessness and the prevention of homelessness, and (b) any services which may assist a homeless person or assist in the prevention of homelessness, is available free of charge to any person in the authority's area.
  • The Scottish Ministers may issue guidance, either to local authorities generally or to a particular authority, as to the form and content of such advice and information.
Although the guidance has been 'live' since 1 April 2002, the Scottish Executive has indicated that it does not expect full compliance with the duty until 1 April 2003 and that it is prepared to take comments on the guidance up until 6 September 2002. This paper sets out Shelter's response.

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