Dr. Stoate:To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness as a means of preventing homelessness of the deposit loan, guarantee and bond schemes offered by local authorities and housing associations in England to enable people on low incomes to rent in the private rented sector;

Yvette Cooper:In June the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) published the results of an independent evaluation of homelessness prevention schemes. This showed rent deposit and similar schemes are widely operated by local authorities and are playing a growing role in rehousing potentially homeless households. It is also clear that these schemes can be highly cost-effective. A summary of this research is available on the DCLG website at www.communities.gov.uk .

Chapter 4 of "Homelessness Prevention : a guide to good practice" is about the use of rent deposit and similar schemes which enable people in the private sector as a solution to their homelessness. The guidance is available on the Department's website at www.communities.gov.uk

The responsibility for monitoring such schemes operated by registered social landlords lies with the Housing Corporation. To date the corporation have not collected data or issued guidance about the use of rent deposit loan schemes, and do not hold records of which RSLs provide these schemes.