Find out about changes to our services and Christmas opening times on our Festive information page. To find out when your bin will be collected over the festive period, visit Changes to County Durham bin collections at Christmas.

Due to maintenance, the following systems will be unavailable from 11.45am on Tuesday 24 December until 8.00am on Thursday 2 January: our online Council Tax, business rates and housing benefit services, and our welfare assistance form. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

I am under 18 and homeless or could be homeless

If you are 16 or 17 years old and have not previously been in care, we will work with you and your parent(s)/guardian(s) to see if we can come to a solution.

You may find yourself at risk of being homeless for many reasons. Do not wait until you become homeless - tell us you are at risk of becoming homeless.

If you need somewhere to sleep tonight Contact Homeless (freephone number).

If we are unable to get agreement for you to return home and you have nowhere to sleep that night, we will arrange temporary accommodation for you.

If we cannot resolve these issues, we will arrange a panel meeting to look at why you are homeless and support you into accommodation.

For advice Contact Housing advice (freephone number), or see our Get help to avoid becoming homeless information, which includes how to contact us outside of office hours.

Contact Housing advice (freephone number)