Copies of all information relating to discharge of homeless
housing duty
Request received: 6 November 2025
1. Please provide copies of any policies, guidelines and/or training prepared and/or followed by your authority’s housing department which relate to the practice of notifying Applicants of an Offer in discharge of the ‘main housing duty’, and the steps to be taken by your authority’s housing department where an Applicant accepts or refuses an Offer.
2. Please confirm what information is provided, and in what format, to Applicants when your authority’s housing department makes an Offer in discharge of the ‘main housing duty’. In particular:
a. Please confirm whether, and if so how, Applicants are advised in relation to:
i. The potential consequences of accepting or refusing an Offer, including as regards the potential termination of the authority’s ‘main housing duty’; and
ii. The Applicant’s right to request a review.
b. To the extent your authority’s housing department uses any templates and/or precedents for such communications, please provide copies of the same.
c. Please provide copies of the information provided to the Applicants in receipt of the five most recent Offers made by your authority’s housing department, including the Offer itself and any subsequent correspondence.
3. Please confirm what information is provided, and in what format, after an Applicant accepts or refuses an Offer and your authority’s housing department terminates its ‘main housing duty’. In particular:
a. Please confirm whether it is your authority’s housing department’s practice to always send a separate letter to notify the Applicant of the termination of the ‘main housing duty’ after the acceptance or refusal of an Offer.
b. Please confirm, and if so how, Applicants are advised in relation to:
i. The consequences of your authority’s housing department terminating its ‘main housing duty’; and
ii. The Applicant’s right to request a review.
c. To the extent your authority’s housing department uses any templates and/or precedents for such communications, please provide copies of the same.
d. Please provide copies of the information provided in the five most recent cases where an Applicant has accepted or refused an Offer and your authority’s housing department has terminated its ‘main housing duty’.
4. If your authority’s housing department’s approach to notifying Applicants of Offers and/or the steps to be taken where an Applicant refuses an Offer is currently under and/or has been subject to review and/or legal challenge, please provide further details (and if already known, the outcome of that review and/or legal challenge)
Response completed: 5 December 2025
1. Training:
Housing officers CIH level 4 certified
Homelessness Law and Advice – Shelter
Housing duties to young people – Shelter
Intentionally homeless – Shelter
Housing or Homeless application the difference – Shelter
Homeless and Temp accommodation – NHAS
Affordability and Temp Accommodation – NHAS
Equality, diversity and inclusion – Skillsgate
At risk of homelessness | East Cambridgeshire District Council
Register for social housing | East Cambridgeshire District Council – Allocations and Lettings Policy
Template letter accepting duty:
HOUSING ACT 1996 PART 7 AS AMMENDED BY THE HOMELESSNESS REDUCTION ACT 2017: THIS IS A NOTIFICATION THAT WE HAVE ACCEPTED A DUTY TO HELP YOU TO RESOLVE YOUR HOMELESSNESS (A SECTION 189B (2) DUTY)
A summary of my decision: We recently saw you or spoke to you because you have a housing problem and wanted our help because you might be homeless. We have carried out an assessment to see how we can help you. The outcome of our assessment is that you are eligible for help and we are satisfied that you are homeless. We owe you a duty to take reasonable steps to help you to secure that suitable accommodation becomes available for your occupation, or in non-legal language a duty to help you to find somewhere else to live. This duty is formally a Section 189B(2) duty under the Homelessness Legislation and is a duty to take reasonable steps to help an applicant to secure that suitable accommodation becomes available for their occupation. The duty requires the local authority to help you to secure suitable accommodation that has a ‘reasonable prospect’ of being available for at least six months. It is important to let you know that the ‘reasonable steps’ duty we owe you does not mean that the Council must offer you a social housing property or any other accommodation, our duty is to take action to help you from becoming homeless. Attached to this notification letter is: 1. Our assessment of your housing circumstances, needs and any support needs. 2. Your Personal Housing Plan (PHP) containing all the things we discussed that can be done to help you to find other accommodation. We want to do everything we can to resolve your homelessness and this plan confirms the actions we discussed and the steps we need to take together. Please note you have a right to request a review of the decision of the local authority as to the steps we are to take to help you as set out in the Personal Housing Plan. This duty to help you will end if through the actions you take, or through our help, we are satisfied there is a reasonable prospect that you have suitable accommodation available for at least six months. It will also end if you fail to co-operate with us in taking the actions needed to try and resolve your homelessness, or if you refuse any offer of accommodation we think is suitable and has been made to resolve your homelessness. The responsibility is on you to take the actions we discussed and these have been set out in your plan. Although the duty to help prevent you from losing your accommodation is placed on the Council, there is also a duty on you to carry out any steps we think you need to take. Please note where you did not agree to certain actions to try and find somewhere else to live, but we think that these actions are reasonable for you to take; we will have included these in your plan and explained why they are reasonable actions for you to take. There are a number of other circumstances where our duty to you might end. If our duty to help you find somewhere else to live, ends we will always notify you by a letter or e-mail and this notification will tell you the reasons why it has ended, and what will happen next. Please carefully read your ‘Personal Housing Plan’, which is attached to this letter, so you understand the steps the Council are taking to help you and what you must do. If you have any questions regarding your Personal Housing Plan or this notification letter please don’t hesitate to telephone or e-mail me using the email address at the top of this letter, or just ring the Council’s Housing Options Service again using the telephone number at the top of this letter.
As this is a formal decision under the Homelessness Legislation I have set out below the legal explanation for my decision in case you need to seek independent advice. I am sorry that this section is written by referring to the homeless legislation and is written in legal language. We need to include this section so if you do seek legal advice, your solicitor will know exactly what duty we owe you, and how we have met our duties under the homeless legislation. If you have any questions regarding this decision and what it means for, you don’t hesitate to email me or contact me and I can explain anything you are unclear about including what it means for you, what you must do, and how the duty owed to you may end. The formal legal explanation of my decision. This is a Section 184 notification under the Housing Act 1996 Part 7 as amended by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. It confirms our acceptance of a Section 189B(2) duty to help to secure that suitable accommodation does not cease to be available for an applicant’s occupation and explains what that duty is. This notification letter refers to: 1. An assessment of your housing circumstances, needs and any support needs carried out to meet the authority’s duty under section 189A. The written outcome required by the legislation is attached to this letter. 2. A Personal Housing Plan issued with this notification also to meet the local authority duty under section 189A. The Personal Housing Plan contains: a) The steps the applicant is required to take for the purposes of helping an applicant to secure that suitable accommodation becomes available for their occupation. This is to meet our section 189A (4) duty. b) If we have not been able to reach an agreement with the applicant regarding any step or steps that the applicant and the authority need to take then, in order to meet our duty under section 189A (6) the plan will also record: 1. Why we could not agree, 2. Any steps we consider it would be reasonable for the applicant to be required to take. 3. The steps the authority is to take This notification has also informed the applicant of their right to request a review of any decision of the local authority as to the steps the authority are to take as set out in the Personal Housing Plan (right of review under section 202 (1) (ba) (i). Our section 189B(2) may be brought to an end in any of the following circumstances: 1. Where we are satisfied that an applicant has: a) Suitable accommodation available for occupation, and b) A reasonable prospect of having suitable accommodation available for occupation for at least 6 months. 2. We have complied with our duty and the period of 56 days beginning with the day that the authority were first satisfied we owed an applicant the section 189B(2) duty has ended (whether or not you are still threatened with homelessness). 3. The applicant has refused an offer of suitable accommodation and, on the date of refusal, there was a reasonable prospect that suitable accommodation would be available for occupation for at least 6 months. 4. The applicant has become homeless intentionally from any accommodation that has been made available as a result of the authority’s exercise of our functions under section 189B(2). 5. The applicant is no longer eligible for assistance, or 6. They have withdrawn their application, or 7. Their deliberate and unreasonable refusal to co-operate with the actions set out in their plan that they are required to take. Where we bring the duty owed to you to an end for any of the reasons set out above we will notify you in writing and of your right to request a review of that decision and what the decision to end the duty means for you. Please note that the Council may discharge its duty to you by securing accommodation for you in the private rented sector. This is known as making a private rented sector offer (PRSO). If we do make the decision to end the duty through a PRSO offer this decision will be taken following a full consideration of your individual circumstances and the facts that apply to your case. You will receive ONE suitable offer of accommodation. The system will bid on your behalf on any suitable property in any of the selected areas if you do not place any bids before the bidding round closes. When you receive this suitable offer of accommodation, this will discharge our duty to you whether you accept or refuse the property. If you refuse a suitable offer of accommodation, the Council will have no duty to make you any further offers and you will then have to make your own housing arrangements. There will be rent in advance payable for any social housing and this could be anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks rent needed at the time of sign up. The Council will not pay this. I am advising that you have this money saved in the event that you are offered a property. If you do not have the money to complete the sign up this could mean that you are overlooked for a
property and the Council could end its duty to house you. At present we have limited access to funds and grants available for items such as white goods, furniture and carpets etc. Therefore please ensure you are actively saving whilst we are working with you.
Template ending duty:
THIS IS A NOTIFICATION UNDER THE HOUSING ACT 1996 TO LET YOU KNOW THAT OUR DUTY TO YOU HAS ENDED AS YOU HAVE ACCEPTED AN OFFER OF SOCIAL HOUSING MADE THROUGH THE COUNCILS HOUSING ALLOCATION SCHEME.
You contacted the Council because you had a housing problem and after an assessment of your homelessness application we wrote to you to confirm that the Council had accepted what the homelessness legislation calls the main homeless duty under section 193(2) of the Housing Act 1996. What this means is that we had a duty to make sure that you were provided with suitable accommodation until we were able to offer you a social housing tenancy, or a 12-month tenancy for a property that you could rent. I now need to tell you that our duty has come to an end because you have been offered and accepted a housing association. This offer was made through the Council’s housing allocation scheme. I am very pleased you have been able to obtain social housing and this has resolved your homelessness. Formally, in case you wish to seek independent advice I need to let you know that we owed you a duty under section 193(2) of the Housing Act 1996, and under section 193 (6) (c) we have now ended the duty owed to you. My decision has been taken after also considering statutory guidance in the Homelessness Code of Guidance 2018 and in particular Chapters 15 and 17. This includes specific advice on when a local authority may bring the duty owed to you to an end through a final offer of social housing. Please note we have also followed the procedure for making a final accommodation offer set out in the legislation and the detail was confirmed in the letter notifying you of the offer. Although we are pleased that we have been able to help you to resolve your housing problem I still need to tell you that, if you do not agree with the Council’s decision to end the duty, you can still ask for a review of this decision if you think the accommodation offered isn’t suitable for you. If you wish to request a review you must let us know within 21 days of the notification of this decision. This is because you have a right to accept the tenancy for the property offered, to move in, and still seek a review of our decision to end the duty owed to you if you think the accommodation isn’t suitable for you. If you require any further help with any housing problem in the future, or if you have any query regarding this letter please contact a member of the Council’s Housing Options team by phone or email and we will be happy to help. We wish you well in your new home.
2. As above
Conversations will be held with any applicants considering refusing a property regarding the consequences of doing this and discharging duty, applicants are encouraged to move in and request a review of suitability as detailed in letters above
3. As detailed above
4.N/A