星空传媒

"Greenwich and Lewisham councils, in south-east London, both entirely avoided the use of bed and breakfasts for another successive year", government figures say (HT 21 March, page 12).

That's news to me. I was previously a housing adviser in the voluntary sector in south-east London, and know of Greenwich council's proud record in not using bed and breakfasts. This, however, was sometimes at the expense of providing any accommodation whatsoever for some homeless applicants with children in priority need when they ran out of other housing units. I gather Greenwich is changing its policy on not using B&B because of the very real housing shortage in the area.

While I wholeheartedly agree that B&B is unsuitable for families (and for young homeless applicants), I think homeless applicants would at least appreciate being given the choice between no accommodation and going to a B&B.