Mr. Mike Allen:

The concepts of unsuitable accommodation and homelessness are distinct. They are quite distinct in legislation. The housing Acts state the local authorities will assess persons applying to them to determine if they have somewhere where they can reasonably be expected to live. If they do not have somewhere that can be deemed to be reasonably acceptable, those people are deemed to be homeless under the law. That number is now 10,000. The people who might reasonably expect to live with those deemed to be homeless, their children, partners, etc., are also deemed to be homeless.

Under housing legislation, there are the concepts of overcrowding and inadequate accommodation. There has been a significant improvement in the publication of the figures from the Housing Agency. The total number on waiting lists is now broken down into those persons who are in that situation because of overcrowding or a place is unsuitable in which to live. It also includes homelessness which has a slightly different definition, into which we will not go now. That is the level of complexity involved in this situation. They are, however, quite different notions. If the Chairman is asking about comparative levels of homelessness, that is a difficult question to answer because we have just received the current-----