Vince Cable

In a letter to Vincent Cable the housing minister, Jeff Rooker, has criticised as "disappointing" the way Richmond council is treating the use of bed and breakfast hotels and homeless families.

The correspondence arose from a case in which a single mother was moved out of bed and breakfast accommodation to a temporary home in Stanwell, too far from the borough to take up a job offer in Teddington. The council refused to give a better offer on the grounds that they were under instructions to move all homeless families from B&B by April.

The government denies that this is the case and stresses, rather, that there is a target which the council agreed to two years ago and has been given money to help realise. It is critical of the failure to help with accommodation near to public transport in order to facilitate a move from benefits to work.

Vincent Cable said: "I recognise that the council have a tough job accommodating homeless people because of the acute shortage of accommodation. But I have noticed in recent months a total lack of flexibility and an unwillingness to look at individual circumstances. A few months ago a child with serious special needs had to be moved from a school where he was settled because the council wouldn't reconsider a single offer which took the mother far away from transport routes. I hope the council takes this rebuke to heart and reconsider their inflexible approach".