I spoke on the BBC Radio Oxford breakfast show yesterday morning on the subject of homelessness. The BBC had got hold of figures showing that homelessness in Oxford was at it's highest level. Thankfully in the Vale it has dropped off in recent months and is now lower than it was a year ago, but there certainly has been a spike, and with our difficult economic times set to continue we must be ever vigilant about the problem. The Vale of White Horse District Council tries to tackle homelessness from both ends, helping families to prevent them becoming homeless in the first place. We offer support finding suitable accomodation and financial support with deposits. On the larger scale we provide temporary accomodation for familys who are made homeless, and working to tackle the housing shortage. I am pleased to say that the absolute number of people who are homeless is extremely low in the Vale. So far in the months from October to December there have been 7 cases of homelessness accepted by the Council (this compares to 10 over the same time last year). It is still devestating for any of those 7 families however, particularly at this time of year. There is also the wider problem of a housing shortage in the Vale, with many people trying to find properties but there are simply not enough affordable (in the truest sense of the word) homes out there for local people. On that last point we are trying to bring vacant properties back into use. The number of long term empty homes in the Vale has been over exagerated by the media in recent weeks, but it is still significant. We use the limited powers we have to encourage home owners to carry out the necessary repairs and bring the properties back into use, we can even offer loans through a Government backed scheme to help cover the cost of renovation. The need to supply more housing is also one of the main drivers behind the Council's proposed policy to allow further small developments around the district, to allow local people to live in the towns and village where they have family connections and support.