(2) what guidance her Department has issued to (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations regarding the provision of deposit loan, guarantee and bond schemes for people to rent in the private rented sector.
In June the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) published the results of an independent evaluation of homelessness prevention schemes. This showed that rent deposit and similar schemes are widely operated by local authorities and are playing a growing role in rehousing potentially homeless households. It is also clear that these schemes can be highly cost-effective. A summary of this research is available on the DCLG website at www.communities.gov.uk.
Chapter 4 of "Homelessness Prevention : A Guide to Good Practice" is about the use of rent deposit and similar schemes which offer people in the private sector a solution to their homelessness. The guidance is available on the Department's website at www.communities.gov.uk
The responsibility for monitoring such schemes operated by registered social landlords lies with the Housing Corporation. To date the corporation has not collected data or issued guidance about the use of rent deposit loan schemes, and does not hold records of which RSLs provide these schemes.