Ms Mary Heavey:

Yes, one aspect of it is the lack of consistency and transparency across local authorities in how they carry out these social housing assessments. To build on a point made by my colleague, Ms Wall, it is not right that people have to contact an independent law centre and that we have to advocate and make arguments on their behalf in order that they can access basic services and supports, such as social housing and social housing supports. There is definitely a need for further training of housing staff. We are talking here about potentially introducing a residency criterion that is incredibly complex. I have concerns about the robustness and consistency of the decision-making when that further complexity is added to the system.