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Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 114A: 114A: Clause 296, page 127, line 24, at end insert— ““(3A) In this paragraph, ““behaviour support services”” means support services to be provided by a person or agency to the new tenant or to any person who is to reside with the new tenant which are set out in a support plan devised following an assessment of the support needs of the household. (3B) It shall be a term of the agreement for the family intervention tenancy that the landlord shall provide, or arrange for the provision of, the services detailed in the support plan referred to in sub-paragraph (3A). (3C) The support plan shall specify the nature and degree (including the frequency of involvement) of the services to be provided and shall be agreed with the new tenant prior to the commencement of the new tenancy. (3D) In devising or approving the support plan, the landlord shall have regard to guidance issued by the appropriate national authority which may include model forms of provision.”” The noble Baroness said: The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, sends her apologies. She had hoped to see the Minister, and indeed looked into the Moses Room just before we started. She is attending a board meeting at Shelter, so one can understand her absence. In moving Amendment No. 114A I shall speak also to Amendment Nos. 114B and 114C. There are others in this group, which is concerned with family intervention tenancies. The amendment essentially seeks to deal with what I would describe as a rather thin definition of behaviour support services and references to what those are, in a clause that I certainly do not oppose but which could have considerable consequences for the small number of people who may be offered, and who may take up, a family intervention tenancy. The first of the amendments seeks to introduce a more prescriptive definition of ““behaviour support services”” to ensure that, when a family moves from a secure tenancy, it receives the services that anyone reading this clause would expect it to receive. Voluntarily giving up a secure or assured social rented tenancy should not be taken lightly. Relinquishing a secure home on the basis—I apologise for my cough; I am not going to do justice to this brief—of receiving intensive and good quality support is significant.