Tuesday 21st October 2025

(1 day, 22 hours ago)

Westminster Hall
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09:30
Bob Blackman Portrait Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)
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I beg to move,

That this House has considered progress on ending homelessness.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank the Backbench Business Committee, which I chair, for granting this debate—I am not surprised that it took that very sensible decision. I begin by welcoming the new Minister to her place and congratulating her on her appointment and the recent funding announcement to support local authorities in addressing homelessness. Her prompt action and proven commitment to tackling child poverty gives me, and I am sure the whole House, confidence that we can look forward to a constructive and purposeful debate today. I am grateful to the many Members who have attended.

The Minister needs no persuasion that homelessness is one of the great injustices in our society and an affront to human dignity that we have a moral duty to end. I think we share that belief across this House. We see every day the human cost of homelessness. We see it far too frequently in the constituent letters we receive, in the stories we hear at our surgeries, and even outside the parliamentary estate on the streets of Westminster as we walk to work each day. But behind every statistic and every person is a unique story. This morning at least 4,600 people woke up on our streets, uncertain where they would sleep tonight. More than 132,000 households live in temporary accommodation, facing constant instability, and more than 172,000 children went to school today knowing that when they return it will not be to a home, but to a mouldy bed and breakfast, a run-down hotel or a short-term let that they could be asked to leave at any moment. They are not just numbers on a page; they are lives in limbo.

Homelessness is a moral crisis, but also a practical one. Local authorities in London—I know colleagues will refer to their own areas—are now spending almost £5 million every single day on temporary accommodation that is often of such poor quality that it damages health and education and hinders opportunity. It is difficult to imagine another area of public spending where we would tolerate so much money being spent to achieve so little outcome. As winter approaches and the nights grow colder, the urgency deepens. This is the moment for decisive, co-ordinated action, so I ask the Minister when we can expect the Government to publish and deliver the promised cross-Government strategy for homelessness. Can she confirm that the interministerial group will continue to meet regularly under the chairmanship of the Secretary of State to drive that strategy forward? If she needs a vehicle to make that happen, my private Member’s Homelessness Prevention Bill, which received an unopposed Second Reading, could go into Committee with a money resolution and we could help get a legal position to support the work that she is going to do.

Gregory Campbell Portrait Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)
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I congratulate the hon. Member on securing the debate. Does he agree with me that, difficult as it might be, the key to the problem that he has correctly outlined is the availability of lower-cost, good quality social housing? We must aim to expand that as quickly and successfully as possible in the next few years.

Bob Blackman Portrait Bob Blackman
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Clearly, the hon. Member anticipates something I will say later in my speech. I have long advocated that we need to build 90,000 affordable homes for social rent each year to meet the demand.

As co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for ending homelessness, I want to draw the Minister’s attention to our new report, “Homes, Support, Prevention—Our Foundations For Ending Homelessness”. The report brings together evidence from across the country, from local and combined authorities, charities, service providers, academics and, crucially, people who have lived experience of homelessness themselves. The report distils a complex problem into three simple but essential pillars that any effective strategy must deliver: first, preventing homelessness wherever possible; secondly, rapidly rehousing people who still need help; and thirdly, improving support for those experiencing the most severe forms of homelessness.

The best way to end homelessness is to prevent it happening in the first place. Almost everyone with lived experience who contributed to our APPG’s work identified a point at which their homelessness could have been prevented. That is a missed opportunity where timely help could have made all the difference. Prevention should not be a political issue; it is simply common sense and morally right, socially responsible and economically wise. Research by Shelter found that one in 10 people in temporary accommodation had to give up work due to their housing situation. That statistic alone should galvanise us to act earlier, before people lose not only their homes but their jobs, stability and self-confidence in a downward spiral.

Through my private Members’ Bills, I have worked to put prevention at the heart of our response. The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 focused on preventing people becoming homeless and presented the largest and most comprehensive changes to the rights of homeless people for more than 39 years. Fundamentally, its purpose is to ensure that everyone at risk of being homeless or who is currently homeless is legally entitled to meaningful help from their local authority, regardless of their current status.

Previously, local authorities had been entitled to assist only those who were deemed a priority and at crisis point. That excluded the majority of people, including almost all of those who were single. The Act also addressed the significant lack of meaningful advice and assistance, which more often than not in the majority of cases was not tailored to the individual’s needs and requirements.

The Act implemented a duty on specified public bodies to refer any person whom they believed was at risk of homelessness within the next 56 days to the relevant housing department. That helps to direct appropriate and efficient support and resources to those in need and prevent them from sleeping rough before it is too late. The 56 days marks a significant extension; previously only those at risk of homelessness in the first 28 days would potentially receive some help. The extension to 56 means that people have a longer opportunity to relieve their situation.

I am pleased to say that, in the first year of implementation, the Homelessness Reduction Act prevented 37,000 people from becoming homeless. It continues to be just as effective today, some six years later. In the first year alone, an additional 60,000 people who were previously ineligible for homeless support were assisted in getting off the streets and into appropriate accommodation. That is a rise of almost 50% on the previous year to the Act’s implementation. Today, I am proud to say that the Homelessness Reduction Act has prevented more than 1.7 million people from becoming homeless, with more than 777,000 now in stable and secure long-term housing.

I am pleased that the Act has helped thousands avoid the trauma of homelessness, but the truth is that we can and must go further. Across our APPG’s evidence sessions, we repeatedly heard of cases where other public services missed crucial opportunities to step in: hospitals discharging patients on to the street; jobcentres overlooking signs of distress; prisons releasing people with no plan for where they would go next. Those are not isolated incidents; they are systemic failures. Recent analysis from the Institute for Government found that discharges from public institutions now account for almost half the recent rise in homelessness applications. If we are serious about tackling homelessness we cannot leave the burden solely on housing departments. It must be a whole-system effort, covering health, justice, education, welfare and local government. We must all work together to stop people falling through the cracks.

Prevention is not only compassionate; it is cost-effective. When someone keeps their home, they recover faster after illness, they are half as likely to reoffend and they find it easier to get back into work. Will the Minister meet me and colleagues to discuss how she intends to embed prevention firmly at the centre of the Government’s homelessness strategy?

Even with the best prevention measures, there will always be times when homelessness cannot be avoided. When that happens, our goal must be to get people back into stable, affordable homes as quickly as possible. That requires a clear, long-term commitment to increasing the supply of social and affordable housing. I have long argued that if we are serious about ending homelessness we must build more homes that people can actually afford.

The Secretary of State’s recent commitment to delivering more social and affordable homes is welcome, but words must now turn into action, and that delivery must be targeted where the need is greatest. Too often, affordable homes are built in the wrong places or at rent levels that are out of reach for those most in need. I ask the Minister to confirm that she will work closely with the Housing Minister to ensure that the long-term plan for housing delivers social homes where they are most needed, and that people experiencing homelessness are given fair and equal access to them, because rapid rehousing works only when the homes are there for people to move into.

We must also ensure that temporary accommodation truly is temporary—a stepping-stone, not a dead end. I have met families who have spent years moving between short-term lets, B&Bs and converted offices, never knowing where they will be next. It is impossible to rebuild their lives under those conditions. A genuine rapid rehousing model backed by adequate social housing can break this cycle. It restores stability, improves health and education outcomes and reduces long-term costs. We owe it to those families, and to the taxpayers footing the bill, to make that a reality.

The third and final pillar of the APPG’s framework is support for those whose homelessness could not be prevented, and who need more than housing alone to rebuild their lives. Supported housing plays a crucial role in that effort. I introduced the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 after receiving extensive evidence of rogue landlords exploiting vulnerable people and the taxpayer. Rogue unscrupulous landlords were setting up supported housing schemes and claiming public money through housing benefit, while providing little or no care whatsoever. Devastatingly, those abuses were not just financial ones; they destroyed lives. Through the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee I saw how deeply that issue runs.

The challenge now is to strike the right balance: driving out the rogue providers while protecting the good ones, and ensuring that vulnerable residents are not made homeless again as a result of reform. That is why I agreed that the powers within the 2023 Act should be subject to consultation so that we can get this right; but we are two years on from Royal Assent and those powers have yet to see the light of day. I ask the Minister to provide an update on three points.

When will the Government publish detailed guidance and timescales for implementing that, including funding for councils, strategic needs assessments and licence fees? What steps are being taken to ensure that local authorities are not misusing their powers to close providers down through housing benefit reviews without proper care for the residents’ welfare? Will the Government confirm that domestic abuse refuges and dispersal providers will not be required to register every individual property separately? That is an administrative burden that would put vital services at risk.

Beyond regulation, however, lies a deeper issue: the collapse of support capacity. Across all our APPG evidence sessions we heard from charities, councils and service providers struggling to meet the growing complexity of people’s needs. The cuts to local support services over the past decade have hollowed out the safety net, leaving too many people without help at the moment they need it most. I have long been a champion of Housing First, a model that provides stable housing alongside intensive wraparound support. The evidence for its effectiveness is overwhelming, yet too many areas lack the funding to deliver it at scale.

When I worked on the supported housing Act, it became clear that rogue operators had thrived precisely because legitimate, well-regulated support had been stripped back. If we want to eliminate exploitation and end homelessness we must rebuild the foundations of proper support. I ask the Minister: what discussions is she having with colleagues across Government about addressing the chronic underfunding of support services? Will the forthcoming homelessness strategy include clear measures to ensure that everyone, regardless of their needs, can access the right help to rebuild their lives?

Homelessness is not inevitable. It is not a natural part of modern life. It is the product of policy choices, systems that fail to intervene soon enough and services that are no longer adequately resourced to meet the need. We have an opportunity and a duty to end that. This is a moment to bring together not only Government Departments, but local authorities, charities, faith groups and communities to deliver on our shared ambition that everyone should have a safe and secure place to call home.

At oral questions last week, the Minister said she never knowingly misses an opportunity to meet an APPG. In that spirit, I warmly invite her to join us at the APPG for ending homelessness annual general meeting, which will take place between 1 pm and 2 pm on 11 November, where she can discuss these issues further—and of course we will benefit from her words at the meeting. I place on record my sincere thanks to the APPG secretariat—Rosie, Matt, Jasmine and all the team at Crisis—for their outstanding work in co-ordinating our efforts, and to the 47 parliamentarians and 27 sector organisations serving on the steering group. Their commitment, expertise and compassion drives this agenda forward every single day.

This debate is not just an opportunity to restate our concern; it must be a catalyst for action. Homelessness is not inevitable. It is solvable. The test of any Government and any Parliament is whether we have the courage and compassion to solve it. Let us make sure that no child grows up without a place to call home, and that no person has to face another winter on the streets. Let us act together to end homelessness once and for all.

Clive Efford Portrait Clive Efford (in the Chair)
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Order. There is a lot of interest in this debate. If a Member is intending to speak, please stand so that we have a chance to make sure everyone can make a contribution.

09:46
Paula Barker Portrait Paula Barker (Liverpool Wavertree) (Lab)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. As co-chair of the APPG for ending homelessness and the co-sponsor of this debate, I thank all colleagues who have attended; our new Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern); Crisis, the secretariat for the APPG; and our fantastic steering group, comprised of organisations that support people who are homeless.

This debate comes at a vital moment. In 2023-24, some 1,611 people died while homeless—up 16% on the previous year. Eleven of them were children. Four were babies aged under one. Long-term rough sleeping is up 13% compared with last year, and long-term rough sleepers now outnumber those who are new to the streets. We have already waited long enough to see a strategy that addresses the moral injustice of homelessness, and I hope the Minister can share an update on progress.

The Prime Minister was absolutely correct to say in Liverpool that we must renew Britain. However, true renewal is possible only with deep roots and strong foundations. We often talk about the importance of a home as a foundation for a good life. Today, I would like to set out how ensuring that the cross-departmental strategy for homelessness delivers secure, affordable homes for everyone can be the foundation of a good society and a better Britain—a country where parents know they will be able to feed their kids after they have paid their rent, where workers can focus on their job and not where they are going to sleep that night, and where people are welcomed into secure communities, not left on the streets.

The latest report of the APPG for ending homelessness, “Homes, Support, Prevention—Our Foundations For Ending Homelessness”, sets a clear blueprint to build that foundation, and I urge the Minister to consider it. The report includes the ambition of halving the use of temporary accommodation and ending rough sleeping by 2030. I am incredibly proud that in their time in office the last Labour Government managed to drastically reduce rough sleeping and the use of temporary accommodation. As an heir to that Government, will the Minister commit to that target and to emulating the progress made on this issue by her Labour predecessors?

This is no utopian target. Our report sets out how to get there by delivering social homes, improving support systems and prioritising prevention to address the root causes of homelessness. On that first point, I welcome the new Secretary of State’s enthusiasm for building and his recognition that we need homes to end homelessness, but England has seen a net loss of 180,000 secure, truly affordable social homes over the last decade, and we must be mindful that our current plans will not match the 90,000 social homes a year that the National Housing Federation and Crisis have calculated we need. It is therefore doubly important that the homes built are accessible to people experiencing homelessness.

For example, domestic abuse survivors often have to leave at short notice, with little to no help. Although the changes to the local connection rule for survivors are welcome, it remains the leading cause of homelessness among women. Too often, survivors cannot access a secure home. When compiling evidence for our APPG report, we heard a heartbreaking story from a survivor of domestic abuse who had been stuck in temporary accommodation so filthy that she could not let her children play on the floor. Will the Minister set out how she intends to work with the Housing Minister on the long-term housing plan and with the Safeguarding Minister on the violence against women and girls strategy, to ensure that those plans complement her own strategy and that every survivor who takes the decision to leave has a secure home to go to? Will she also consider a full roll-out of the “whole housing” approach?

On improving support, the evidence we collected from frontline services and homeless charities was clear: they need to secure funding to deliver effective support for people with multiple needs who need more than a home to end their homelessness. People and local authorities are trapped in a cycle in which the scale of urgent need is overwhelming services, leading to worse outcomes despite higher spending. The National Audit Office gave evidence that the current system was “unsustainable” and over-focused on crisis management, not prevention. We need to break the cycle with both an emergency response to spiralling rates of homelessness and an ambitious, resourced plan to transform homelessness support within a decade. Will the Minister commit to matching the calls for homelessness funding to be consolidated, flexible to needs and based on multi-annual contracts?

Finally, on prevention, the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) spoke about the importance of breaking down silos in public services, but it is also important that broader departmental spending decisions do not cause homelessness. For example, when compiling our report, the APPG heard evidence from charities and local authorities that the decision by the Department for Work and Pensions to freeze local housing allowance is making homes unaffordable as rents continue to rise. I can see that playing out in my Liverpool Wavertree constituency: according to analysis by Crisis and data from Zoopla, just three in every 100 properties advertised for rent last year were affordable for people who rely on local housing allowance.

When people inevitably miss out, they have nowhere to go but the local authority. It is therefore entirely unsurprising that council spending on TA is spiralling, with a 25% rise across England in the last year alone, and as the Minister has rightly identified, record numbers of children are now homeless and housed in temporary accommodation. Does the Minister agree that although the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has every right to be prudent, we cannot simply ignore the economic reality of how much it costs to rent a home and ask local authorities and society to pick up the pieces?

Will the Minister also consider rolling out Housing First? The pilots in Greater Manchester, the Liverpool city region and the west midlands achieved 84% tenancy sustainment—84% of people sustained long-term tenancies after three years—and measurable cost savings. Analysis from the Centre for Social Justice finds that for every £1 invested in Housing First, the public purse saves £2 through reduced A&E, policing and justice costs.

Social homes, secure support and a truly preventive system that helps people to avoid homelessness are the kind of common-sense steps that will build the foundation of a Britain that we can all be proud of at the next election.

None Portrait Several hon. Members rose—
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Clive Efford Portrait Clive Efford (Eltham and Chislehurst) (Lab)
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Order. A lot of the people who are standing did not provide their names to the Chair. I am sorry, but I will have to impose a two-minute limit if I am going to get everybody in and bring in the Front Benchers at 10.28 am.

09:53
Jim Shannon Portrait Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for setting the scene so well, and I wish the Minister well in her new role. I will ask her for one thing at the beginning. This morning I met representatives from Centrepoint, which looks after homeless young people, and I understand that they have written to the Minister, as part of the youth chapter collective, to ensure that youth homelessness is a central part of what the Government are doing. Will the Minister agree to a meeting on that?

In the short time available, let me give a quick perspective on Northern Ireland, the stats for which are incredibly worrying. Some 7,600 households presented as homeless in 2024-25. Of those, 67% were accepted as statutory homeless, with 5,200 living in temporary accommodation. Here is the big thing: the cost of temporary accommodation, according to the Northern Ireland Audit Office, is some £39 million. For us in Northern Ireland, it is a massive issue. In my office, housing issues and affordable housing make up most of the issues we deal with. I think of those living in accommodation, but then the landlord decides to sell the property and makes them homeless, and when they go for private accommodation they find that the price is absolutely out of reach.

One of the solutions would be for uninhabitable homes to become habitable. In Northern Ireland we have almost 1,600 or 1,700 of them. A nationwide campaign on that could turn around accessible housing very quickly. It is not the Minister’s responsibility, but we need to be able to offer first-time buyers affordable homes. That would take some of the pressure off. Those are my quick requests; in two minutes that is all I can say.

09:55
Liam Conlon Portrait Liam Conlon (Beckenham and Penge) (Lab)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) and the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for securing this important debate. I thank the APPG for ending homelessness for its comprehensive recent report, as well as all those across the homelessness sector who work tirelessly and those whose experience and expertise informed the report.

Homelessness in all its forms is rising. In my borough of Bromley—a borough also represented by you, Mr Efford, and by the hon. Member for Orpington (Gareth Bacon)—nearly 2,000 households are now in temporary accommodation. Most of them are placed out of borough, in part due to the failure of the Conservative council over several decades to invest in building new homes. I have spoken to families in Beckenham and Penge who have been placed as far away as the midlands, uprooted from their homes, work, schools and support networks in south London. I remember, on my first visit to a school after the election, hearing about the dozens of children at that school who live in the Travelodge, and the impact of that on them.

We are short of time, so I want to make a couple of quick points. I welcome the steps the Government have already taken, including the £39 billion of investment to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation, the measures in the Renters’ Rights Bill, and an £84 million cash boost to support families in temporary accommodation. If we are to meet the scale of the challenge, we must work with charities such as St Martin-in-the-Fields and its brilliant chief executive officer Duncan Shrubsole, who is a constituent and a very good friend of mine. To the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree, the last Labour Government achieved so much, and it is in our DNA to tackle this issue. We are making progress, but we need to accelerate. I look forward to the Minister’s response.

09:58
Adam Dance Portrait Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Members for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) for securing the debate.

Since I was elected, housing and homelessness has been the biggest issue that my team have been dealing with in Yeovil. We have had hundreds of cases. I will share a few stories to highlight the impossible situations in which some people find themselves in my constituency, but I will not share their names due to the nature of the cases.

One constituent has been homeless since April, after the breakdown of his long-term relationship. As he shared a tenancy with his ex-partner, he was left in a complex legal position. If he removed himself from the tenancy, he risked being labelled purposely homeless, but if he remained on the tenancy, the council would consider him still to have suitable accommodation.

After several months, the council accepted a release duty and offered him a placement in shared accommodation. However, he had to decline the offer because of the high level of drug activity at the property—he feared he would relapse. Since then, he has been denied any further housing support. This constituent, as is the case for so many constituents like him, is just trying to get his life back on track, but now he is living in a garage with no access to basic facilities.

Unfortunately, there are so many other stories. For example, my office was made aware of a blind woman sleeping rough in Ninesprings park; she was forced out of her home because squatters took possession of it. She would have remained entirely off the radar, with no engagement from local authorities, if a member of the public had not approached her and told her to reach out to my office.

A country is only as good as the support it gives to the most vulnerable, and right now we must do more to end homelessness. But homelessness is not just a housing issue. We desperately need to invest more in drug treatment and rehabilitation, and get more mental health hubs in rural communities. We also need more community centres and police officers, to tackle crime and reach out to vulnerable people.

Finally, as that last case shows, we must ensure that local authorities’ homelessness relief systems are accessible to those who are visually impaired, neurodiverse or homeless with no access to technology. I ask the Minister to review this matter urgently. Hearing today’s heartbreaking stories, it is difficult not to feel hopeless and powerless. But we are not powerless; we have the power.

10:00
Kim Johnson Portrait Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) (Lab)
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It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship today, Mr Efford. I thank my good friend and constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Paula Barker), as well as the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), for securing this debate. I welcome the Minister to her place.

As the MP for Liverpool Riverside, I have witnessed at first hand the devastating impact of homelessness. Before I was elected, I worked for Liverpool adult services and supported a number of service users living in hostels or on the street, many with multiple complex needs, including mental health issues, addiction and disabilities. There were people losing their legs due to injecting, or using drugs or alcohol to self-medicate because they were abused as kids in care; care leavers left to fend for themselves; and victims of domestic violence arriving in Liverpool from other cities.

Homelessness can affect many people for very different reasons, and what is needed is not just decent, affordable homes but wraparound care to meet a variety of needs and to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place. The crisis in homelessness cannot be overstated, but under this Labour Government we have the opportunity to end it, with the political will and a much-needed homelessness strategy.

We have heard the devastating data and statistics, particularly about children living in temporary accommodation. Those figures should shame us all, but particularly those rogue landlords. We need a homelessness strategy that tackles the disproportionate impact on black communities. Shelter’s report, “My colour speaks before me”, shows that from the moment black applicants engage with social housing, they face greater hurdles than white applicants.

We must move away from costly crisis-response strategies that rely on expensive and insecure temporary accommodation, and instead invest in decent, affordable, secure and permanent homes. A Labour Government can achieve this; we just need the political will to make it happen.

10:02
Steve Darling Portrait Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)
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Thank you for chairing this debate, Mr Efford, and I congratulate the hon. Members for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) and for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) on securing it.

Homelessness—what we see on the streets across the United Kingdom—is just the tip of the iceberg of the crisis in our housing system. For more than 30 years, I have campaigned on this issue while serving my local community. One of the sad pleasures is occasionally going out with our outreach team in Torbay and knowing that there is somebody going up to a person sleeping in a doorway, saying to them, “Hello, I’m from Torbay council. Would you like something to eat or drink, and how can we help?” That is extremely humbling, and I pay tribute to those members of staff.

Clearly, we have seen a massive reduction in our social rented housing stock—from 34% of housing stock when Thatcher came into power to just 17% now. In Torbay, only 7% of housing stock is social rented. The private sector has stepped up, but that leaves people with massive bills to pay for what is sometimes not the best housing. I pay tribute to some of those who pick up the pieces of this challenge: Kath from PATH, an excellent charity; Rev. Sam Leach and his team at St Mags who do incredible work supporting our street homeless; and also the Unleashed theatre, which won the King’s award for voluntary service, supporting homeless people across Torbay.

Massive cuts to the Supporting People budget were at the root of those challenges, and I am afraid to say that under the Labour Government, we have a quarter of a billion pounds of cuts to our NHS, our mental health service has lost £21 million, and the homeless and rough sleepers team in Torbay is being ripped out. Will the Minister intervene with the Devon Partnership NHS trust over the savage cuts that are leaving some of the most vulnerable people even more on the edges of our society in Torbay?

10:04
Rebecca Long Bailey Portrait Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford) (Lab)
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I thank the co-sponsors of this debate, my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Paula Barker) and the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman). We start from a position where we have lost more than 260,000 social rented homes in the last decade. Even now, most so-called affordable homes are out of reach for the people who need them most. Ultimately, if we are serious about ending homelessness, we must give local authorities the power, funding and freedom to build social homes at scale.

That starts with looking at the affordable homes programme, which is sadly not enough. It too often delivers homes at supposedly affordable rents that, in many places, are anything but. Councils need grant rates high enough to deliver homes at true social rent so that ordinary families can actually afford them. While we are at it, we must lift the shackles from council borrowing and address the issues that councils face in meeting borrowing rules. From cuts to budgets, maintenance backlogs, right-to-buy losses and falling rent yields as local housing allowance fails to meet housing spend, housing revenue accounts are in a state of crisis and that must be addressed to remove barriers to borrowing.

We must also fix the planning system and rebuild council capacity. Decades of cuts have gutted planning departments and valuable experience has been lost. We must also rebuild those local housing teams and council-owned development companies that can plan for the long term and with social purpose at their core. Salford city council has led the way on that with its own model, Dérive, and that could be replicated across the country.

I know that the Minister agrees with much of that, which is why I am hopeful about her response. When we truly invest in council housing, we do not just end homelessness; we create jobs, strengthen communities, cut carbon emissions and give people a stake in their own future.

10:06
Clive Jones Portrait Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank the co-sponsors of this debate, the hon. Members for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker), for securing it.

Local housing allowance is meant to help people on low incomes afford private rent by covering the cheapest 30% of homes in an area, but it has been frozen for years while rents have continued to rise. The result is that housing benefit no longer reflects the real cost of renting, and thousands are struggling to keep a roof over their head with no extra support.

Getting a discretionary housing payment is not simple. Renters already face barriers such as needing guarantors or are discriminated against for needing extra help, and delays in securing support mean that many lose their homes entirely. Raising the local housing allowance alone is not enough, however, because without increasing the benefit cap, which has barely moved since 2013, many households would not see the full benefit.

My constituent, Yasmin, said that finding somewhere affordable that would also take someone on benefits was like finding a needle in a haystack and that the whole process was one of the worst times of her life. She was made to feel as though she was not even a human being. What Yasmin wants is what we all want: a safe, secure home that is affordable and has long-term stability. As she says, “I really hope we can have a country where this basic human right is accessible for everyone.”

It is time for a system that supports people, rather than leaving them behind. Will the Government act urgently to address the inadequate LHA rates, which have been frozen until 2026, and implement extra support that is not first come, first served, but designed to help everyone who needs it?

10:08
Nadia Whittome Portrait Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)
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The UK’s homelessness crisis has been decades in the making. Thanks to Thatcher selling off social housing, a large proportion of our country is now at the mercy of private landlords—like those in my constituency who issued section 21 notices to three buildings on Mansfield Road, putting dozens at risk of homelessness.

Low pay and low levels of benefits compared with soaring rents make it even harder for people to access the private rented sector at all, and we have the scandal of children growing up in hotels. I welcome the Renters’ Rights Bill to shift the balance of power towards tenants and away from landlords, and the Government’s commitment to build 1.5 million homes, but we cannot rely on private house builders to build the genuinely affordable homes that we need. The Government must implement a mass public house building programme of homes for social rent.

When I was on the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, I repeatedly questioned the previous Government on why they refused to set a target on new homes for social rent. Our Government must set a target of at least 90,000 homes a year and ensure that they are built. Right to buy must also be scrapped. The action to tackle no-fault evictions in the Renters’ Rights Bill is essential, but landlords can evict by the back door by putting up the rent instead. We should be looking seriously at rent controls to stop the scandal of ever-growing rents gobbling up a higher proportion of people’s wages and costing a fortune in housing benefit—which, of course, needs to rise with rents; that is something the Government must commit to.

In the meantime, there are immediate steps that we can take to ease homelessness for those at the sharpest end while we tackle the structural issues. I was privileged to spend time with the street outreach team in Nottingham, who highlighted the need for more permanent shelters that are easier to access and that could support people with more complex needs. We also talked about the need for more housing like Grove House in Nottingham, which is made up of self-contained units for women with complex needs and provides wraparound support.

10:10
Josh Babarinde Portrait Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)
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I thank the co-sponsors, the hon. Members for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker), for securing the debate.

Although Eastbourne might be the sunniest town in the country, its light and sun also cast deep shadows on our town, including through the temporary accommodation crisis and the out-of-area placements that make up 46% of placements in Eastbourne. In many circumstances, there are good reasons why out-of-area placements are appropriate—for example, for survivors of domestic abuse who need to relocate—but all too often, local authorities wrongly take “out of area” to mean “out of responsibility”. In such cases, local authorities leave vulnerable people stranded without the networks or support services that they need, and expect the receiving local authorities and charities to voluntarily meet those needs instead.

In Eastbourne, that trend is increasing. For example, two years ago, in October 2023, Brighton and Hove city council had 42 placements in Eastbourne; today it has 195. That is concerning because in January 2023, for example, a 25-year-old man, who was placed into the Eastbourne area from Brighton and Hove city council, was found dead, but in the month before he died, the council had undertaken no welfare checks. Earlier this year, two more people died in Wilmington Square. In Newhaven, part of the neighbouring constituency, that of my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (James MacCleary), 10 people have died.

Shockat Adam Portrait Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
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Does the hon. Member agree that being homeless should not prevent people from using primary care services, such as GP and dental practices, and the Government must support those practice providers as much as they can?

Josh Babarinde Portrait Josh Babarinde
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I agree that the Government must provide support, but local authorities must do so too. I will come to that point shortly.

This summer, I wrote to the Minister’s predecessor to ask what intervention the Government could make in relation to out-of-area placement policy. In response, the Government said that they will review their out of area placement policy, including considering ways

“to further define where out of area placements are acceptable and expectations on placing and receiving local authorities.”

I welcome that, but could the current Minister confirm the timeline for it? Will she meet with Eastbourne borough council’s leader, Stephen Holt, and me to discuss it? In the meantime, will she also urge Brighton and Hove city council to take responsibility and ensure that it does not let down folks who are vulnerable and need its support?

10:13
Sureena Brackenridge Portrait Mrs Sureena Brackenridge (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab)
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I thank the co-sponsors of today’s ever-important debate, the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker). As hon. Members have mentioned, homelessness is so much more than an individual not having a roof over their head; it is about the loss of safety, dignity and the often complex support that they need.

In Wolverhampton North East, for far too many years, we have seen the scale of the challenge, with the loss of social homes and increasing rents and mortgage costs. We have also seen the strength of our community’s response. In Wolverhampton, homelessness rates are exacerbated by those stuck in temporary housing and the “unofficial homeless”, who manage by sofa surfing. More than 600 children are growing up in temporary accommodation, and hundreds of families are living with uncertain housing situations.

The number of people sleeping rough in Wolverhampton is relatively low, with around eight recorded last autumn, but I want to share one such story from my constituency. Due to a local shopkeeper called Max, who could not turn a blind eye, the community of Wednesfield and I became aware of John, who had found himself sleeping rough on Wednesfield High Street. He had lost almost everything: his home, his ID, access to social security benefits and hope that anyone cared. But then something remarkable happened: members of the community, led by Max and including Sharon, John Paul, Sherrie and Jade, came to help him. I was deeply moved by that, and with my team and the support of P3, a fantastic national charity with roots in Wolverhampton, helped him rebuild his life.

Emily Darlington Portrait Emily Darlington (Milton Keynes Central) (Lab)
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My hon. Friend is making a fantastic speech. Does she agree that supporting people from rough sleeping into solo accommodation involves a continuum of support from the charity and public sectors? That creates the system that holds people up and supports them, with trauma-based support at its heart.

Sureena Brackenridge Portrait Mrs Brackenridge
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Absolutely. We have to heal the person and the family and respond to their situation, rather than simply securing a safe home, although that is of course important too.

Finally, I put on record my thanks to Wolverhampton’s wonderful community services, including the Good Shepherd, P3 and the Alternative Giving initiative, which gives 100% of donations directly to organisations and charities that work in Wolverhampton city centre to provide long-term support for those who need it.

Clive Efford Portrait Clive Efford (in the Chair)
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You are all being very disciplined.

10:16
Andrew George Portrait Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)
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There is no time for courtesies. Homelessness is one end of a continuum that starts with thousands of wealthy people purchasing holiday and second homes in places such as Cornwall and ends with 5,000 people annually presenting to the local authority as at risk of or experiencing homelessness. For a number of years, I led the Street Food Project in Penzance and saw these issues at close quarters, speaking to the people involved and those experiencing homelessness. It was a very distressing picture, and it continues today.

The other contrast I want to draw attention to is the fact that £500 million of taxpayers’ money is provided through small business rate relief in Cornwall to holiday home owners, subsidising the second homes of the wealthy. If we put that money into housing to meet the needs of those who are homeless and in housing need, we would solve this problem overnight. We need to address that inequality.

I wish I could draw attention to the good work the local authority is doing and to the outcomes of that work, but I want to ask the Minister about the housing benefit subsidy loss that local authorities experience when they put people into bed-and-breakfast accommodation. They only receive housing benefit for that accommodation, and that needs to be reviewed.

I agree with the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) that we need to reward the good landlords and not just regulate the bad ones. We also need to address the perfect storm in the construction industry, which has resulted in us not being able to get on and deliver the shovel-ready projects that are available to the Government. They are going forward with the Renters’ Rights Bill, but it will take another four or five years to get those new developments off the ground. They could do that now.

10:18
Dave Robertson Portrait Dave Robertson (Lichfield) (Lab)
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It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) and the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for securing the debate, and the Backbench Business Committee for scheduling it. Last week, my hon. Friend and I had the privilege of speaking at events hosted by Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse and the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance. It is so important that we bring domestic abuse into this conversation, because it is the leading cause of homelessness for women in this country.

However, the real reason I am here today is my constituent Caitlin. Caitlin is a survivor. She was in a relationship that turned abusive, and unbeknown to her family she was coerced into co-signing a lease for a flat with her abuser, naming herself as guarantor. Four days after she signed that lease, he was arrested, charged and later convicted. Caitlin has never lived in that flat, but despite her former partner’s conviction, there was no way to release her from that contract. He refused to pay rent, as another way of exerting control over her, and that put Caitlin at huge financial risk. It took until last week to resolve the issue, with months of back and forth from my office, and eventually the threat of legal action, before the agent backed down. There was no compassion and no understanding, and Caitlin knew things could have been much worse if she did not have a supportive family.

I am proud that the Renters’ Rights Bill will take us a step closer to solving that problem by doing away with shorthold tenancies, but there is a lot more we need to do. Standing Together and DAHA have pioneered the adoption of what they call the whole housing approach, and last week they published the findings of a trial in Cheshire East. It was astonishingly successful, preventing 98% of the women involved from becoming homeless, up from 63% before the pilot began. What consideration is the Department giving to expanding that approach across the country?

Under that approach, Standing Together and DAHA have also developed a new accreditation targeted at the private rented sector, and I want to see a trial of that new accreditation fully funded. I have written to the Secretary of State, and I would love to hear from the Minister what the consideration the Department will give to funding the next stage of that pilot.

10:20
Rachel Blake Portrait Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) for her tireless work on the APPG, and the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for his work on this topic. It was hard to disagree with much of what he said in his speech, which is testament to the cross-party commitment on this issue and the growing political consensus that ending homelessness really is possible.

It is a source of great shame that the centre of our capital is also the centre of homelessness. Last year, there were 2,612 people living on the streets in the City of Westminster, and 878 in the City of London. Last year, Westminster city council spent £95 million on temporary accommodation costs, and the City of Westminster’s costs have gone up by 50%.

I believe that we can tackle the causes of homelessness and that this Government are tackling the causes of homelessness. We are ending no-fault eviction and supporting vulnerable people, and I welcome the additional £2.35 million the Government have invested in homelessness services in Westminster, such as The Passage, St Mungo’s, King George’s Hostel, the Single Homeless Project and St Martin-in-the-Fields. We are bringing forward solutions, and we can prevent homelessness, but I ask the Minister to consider the impact of the local connection test and the cost for local authorities and homeless families.

Ending homelessness is the right thing to do. We cannot accept children living in hotels, we cannot accept vulnerable people living on the streets and we cannot accept the damage that homelessness does to families, communities and our economy. We can end homelessness, and we look forward to the cross-departmental homelessness strategy and its proposals.

10:22
Lillian Jones Portrait Lillian Jones (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab)
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I thank the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) for securing this important debate.

I am angry and frankly embarrassed that I am here today to discuss the deepening homelessness crisis in Scotland, which is inseparable from the scandal of rising child poverty. After nearly two decades in power, the SNP has presided over that crisis; in fact, the Scottish Government fuelled it by cutting the affordable homes budget by £200 million, or 26%, despite mounting political pressure to declare a national housing emergency, which they finally did. The fact that the SNP failed to respond to that growing crisis over years with either urgency or even compassion demonstrates its lack of leadership; quite simply, it was abandonment. After 20 years of the SNP, Scotland has nothing to show, only a national disgrace: rising homelessness, rising child poverty and a Government who have lost their way.

As of March 2025, over 34,000 households in Scotland were assessed as homeless or at risk of being homeless— the highest number in over a decade. Temporary accommodation figures also hit a record high, with over 17,000 households—a 6% rise—affected. That is a scandal.

Behind those numbers are children. Over 10,100 children were living in temporary accommodation, with no home to call their own—young lives in limbo, with no stability, no security and no dignity. A further shocking fact is that 242 people died in 2023 while homeless, half of them under the age of 45. Some of those deaths were linked to drugs misuse—another crisis the Scottish Government have failed to address. These are not just policy failures; they are moral failures.

The SNP has lost sight of why it was elected. It has no solutions and no answers. Frankly, Scotland demands better from its Government: bold, radical policy, investment, leadership to end the scourge of homelessness, and temporary accommodation to restore stability, security and dignity for every homeless child and adult.

10:24
Rachael Maskell Portrait Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Ind)
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It was Rowntree’s work on poverty in York that gave rise to the 1919 Housing Act, which addressed homelessness. It is in this rich tradition of social reform in York, and in order to reduce poverty and inequality, that executive member, Councillor Michael Pavlovic, with his vast experience, dedication and determination, and Labour’s City of York council are today leading the way, along with academic Nicholas Pleace, who leads on housing first, and looking at how to integrate a person-centred, trauma-informed pathway delivered by multidisciplinary, multi-agency approaches. This is pragmatic, but we also need the supply, including of one-bed flats, to ensure that social housing is available, so that services such as mental health and substance dependency services can be integrated. We also need to recognise the complex and varied causes of homelessness.

Wrapping services around somebody in their own home not only provides a practical pathway out of homelessness, but builds resilience, independence and dignity. Wider support can also ensure that people have new levels of security. Barriers to accessing health and social care can contribute to high numbers of preventable deaths. Involving partners in ensuring wellbeing and physical health, which the Salvation Army has done in setting up a new boxing gym in the city, will improve people’s holistic outcomes. As many have highlighted today, focusing on the causes, but also on the opportunities to support women and children out of homelessness, must be a first step. The governance arrangements being introduced in York will ensure that city partners hold the authority to account through multi-agencies. With York on a new cutting-edge path from homelessness to hope—one rooted in evidence and best-practice approaches—I invite the Minister to meet the team in York, the university partners and clients too.

10:25
Gideon Amos Portrait Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)
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It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Efford. I congratulate the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) on securing this debate and on all the work he has clearly be done in this area—of course, the fact that he is Chair of the Backbench Business Committee has absolutely nothing to do with the compliments I am giving him. This is an important debate, because homelessness touches every part of the United Kingdom, in every local community, and everyone who believes, as the Liberal William Beveridge did then, and we do today, that homelessness and poor housing are part of the giant of squalor and need to be defeated. Unless people have the shelter of a decent home, they cannot be truly free to lead the fulfilling lives they wish to lead.

The level of homelessness today has rightly been termed a crisis by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, and it is one that demands our attention and our action. Across England, over 117,000 households were living in temporary accommodation at the end of March 2024, including more than 151,000 children. That is a fail of national proportions. While the issue might be most visible in urban areas, rural homelessness has risen by 40% over the past five years, leaving many without access to services or support. In my county of Somerset, over 12,000 households languish on the waiting list and are unlikely to get the homes they need, after decades in which we have lost millions of council houses, which were never replaced—4.3 million sold off since the 1980s, part of a net loss of 2.2 million social rent homes in this country.

But statistics, of course, do not tell the whole story. Take Ed, who is in his 50s, came to my surgery. He is living in his car, trying to hold down a good job as a lorry driver, but not one good enough to be able to afford a home near his family in Taunton. Take Mary, who is sharing her bed with her teenage daughter, while her younger daughter shares the only other bedroom with her grandmother; or the young mum and baby who had all their belongings put on the pavement outside their hotel on a Saturday morning, when they were turned out with nowhere to go. These are the real casualties, and far too many of them are children.

Councils struggling with the rising costs of the care crisis and special educational needs system are often unable to devote the resources to homeless people that are needed. That is why the Liberal Democrats have, among other things, called first and foremost for a cross-Whitehall plan to end all forms of homelessness—an approach that co-ordinates action across Departments, ensuring that solutions are integrated, effective and comprehensive. The interministerial group recommended by the Select Committee would therefore need to take forward a homelessness strategy, which we urge the Government to deliver as soon as possible.

Secondly, a cornerstone of our approach must be a “somewhere safe to stay” legal duty, to ensure that anyone at risk of sleeping rough can have shelter. That would provide a realistic basis for restoring stability, rebuilding trust and giving people the support they need to move forward with their lives. That is something that the nearly 4,000 veterans found to be homeless in England particularly deserve, in addition to the decent homes standard for forces’ families, which we are delighted to be helping to bring into legislation in the Renters’ Rights Bill this week.

Thirdly, the Liberal Democrats would abolish the two-child benefit cap—something brought in by the Conservatives in 2017, once the coalition was no longer there to moderate their instincts. No child should bear the consequences of such an arbitrary financial restriction. Fourthly, those experiencing homelessness should be exempt the indignity of only being allowed the shared accommodation rate, because forcing vulnerable people into unsuitable sharing only exacerbates the risk of them returning to rough sleeping and undermines their security. Fifthly, councils must be empowered and properly funded to provide safe accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse, to ensure that escaping violence never has to mean making oneself homeless.

The housing support system is also failing those in need. The housing support allowance has not kept up with inflation and has not been increased for some years, leaving many unable to meet rent costs and at higher risk of homelessness. The Liberal Democrats would restore it to the 30th percentile of local rents and ensure that it was automatically uprated against that benchmark every year in future, so the support keeps pace with the reality of the housing market. That is a simple but vital reform, preventing families from slipping through the cracks simply because a policy has failed to keep up with rising costs.

Recent Government funding announcements have, of course, been welcome in principle, but they must be judged by their impact. The previous rough sleeping initiative was replaced by the rough sleeping prevention recovery grant, yet in Somerset this amounted to a 0% increase on 2024-25 levels, or a real-terms cut. That must not happen again. More fundamentally, local authorities must be equipped to deliver permanent accommodation, to integrate medical, social and emotional support, and to provide a permanent pathway out of homelessness, not merely a temporary respite, not least to escape the rip-off of hotels and private B&B landlords draining public funds from hard-working taxpayers.

Housing supply therefore remains crucial to this whole challenge. In Somerset, we urgently need more accommodation suitable for homeless people and more follow-on accommodation. That needs to be tackled by unlocking more council sites and speeding up delivery. Ultimately, it does need more funding. In parts of Somerset, such as Minehead, my Lib Dem colleagues are building the first new council houses there for a generation and have just announced another £40 million for more council houses. However, local young families deserve genuinely affordable council and social rent homes in far greater numbers. Liberal Democrats would therefore build 150,000 new social homes a year, and in our manifesto we included a £6 billion a year investment to get up to that level of delivery. For the generation locked out of home ownership, we want to see a generation of rent-to-own houses, where renters gain ownership after 30 years or can port their equity if they move sooner.

We have long called for a statutory target of 150,000 new social homes a year, so it is disappointing the Government propose only 20,000 social homes a year and are relying far too heavily on private developers to fix a crisis that is not in their remit. Liberal Democrats also propose an £8 million a year emergency upgrade programme to ensure that homes are safe, warm and energy efficient, tackling fuel poverty by cutting energy bills. Only by addressing housing and energy insecurity together can we prevent homelessness before it begins and support those already at risk.

Homelessness is preventable. It is a product of policy changes, neglect and underfunding. Councils like Somerset have just committed to an ambition to achieve 1,000 affordable homes a year, but what it and other councils need from the Government is support that is meaningful, sustained and accountable. Last year the Shared Health Foundation found that between 2019 and 2024, in just one Parliament, 74 children died in temporary accommodation. Not only that, but temporary accommodation was officially cited as a contributory factor in those deaths. I am sorry to say that 58 of those children who died were babies under the age of one. Let us ensure that this stops and that next winter does not see the tragic ending of the life of even one more rough sleeper, or one more family deprived of safety and stability. Liberal Democrats will fight to ensure that homelessness and poor housing are no longer a crisis but are consigned to the past, a chapter in Britain’s history, as William Beveridge intended.

10:34
Gareth Bacon Portrait Gareth Bacon (Orpington) (Con)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford, and to take part in this debate about the progress on ending homelessness. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and the hon. Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) both for securing this debate and for their opening remarks. I know that both those hon. Members have made combatting homelessness a central part of the force that drives them in Parliament. As we have heard, their excellent work as co-chairs of the all-party parliamentary group for ending homelessness has been solid, earnest and methodical, and has produced robust conclusions. My hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East in particular has made a demonstrable difference in this field, with his 2017 private Member’s Bill, which went on to become the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which I will refer to shortly.

I do not doubt that all Members gathered here today share a strong desire to end rough sleeping and homelessness for good. Homelessness is a social tragedy, wherever it occurs and for whatever reason. No one in our society should be forced to live on the streets, and it is incumbent on us all to do our best to ensure that constituents can live in a safe, decent and secure home. Although progress was made to that end under the previous Government, work remains to be done, as my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East said in his opening speech. I offer my full support to the Government for their shared desire to end homelessness once and for all.

As policymakers have increasingly come to appreciate, homelessness does not simply begin at the point someone finds themselves on the street; rather, it is rooted in long-term causes, whether persistent issues with mental health or substance abuse, offenders stuck between prison and the streets, with no place to go, or young people in care leaving the system without a fixed destination. The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, sponsored by my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East and implemented by the previous Government, recognised that fact in law, placing an enhanced duty on local authorities to intervene at an early stage in an effort to prevent homelessness from occurring. Over 740,000 households have been prevented from becoming homeless or were supported into settled accommodation since the introduction of the 2017 Act—an achievement that should be acknowledged.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East and the hon. Member for Liverpool Wavertree said in their opening speeches, prevention must be at the heart of any national strategy for tackling homelessness, which is why I welcome the Government’s decision to continue the previous Administration’s approach of offering more effective support to prevent rough sleeping from happening in the first place. At the heart of the previous Administration’s approach was the rough sleeping initiative, which saw pioneering work across society between local authorities, voluntary organisations and healthcare providers to tailor support where homelessness occurs, meeting the individual needs of people facing homelessness and helping them to build an independent life once off the streets.

Ending rough sleeping for good will require a whole-Government and a whole-society effort to be achievable, which is why it is vital that there is a sense of purpose from the very highest levels of Government to drive change. Although the Government’s ambition to carry on this work is laudable, it is disappointing that the full cross-Government strategy for ending homelessness that they promised in their manifesto has yet to emerge, despite repeated promises from Ministers of its publication.

Commentators such as the Institute for Government have already warned that a lack of co-ordination between Government Departments is undermining progress when tackling homelessness, preventing public bodies from working together to be proactive and focus on the root causes of homelessness. The previous Government’s “Ending rough sleeping for good” strategy brought together seven Departments from across Government to that end. I fear that, without a similar statement of intent from the current Government, their approach to ending homelessness will fall short and fail those in need.

The consequences of the lack of clarity are already becoming clear, not least in the effects of the Government’s Renters’ Rights Bill on the housing market. Although Ministers and Labour Members continue to claim that that legislation will make it easier to find a home, the message from the private rented sector appears to be quite the opposite, with 41% of private landlords saying, at the end 2024, that they were planning to sell their properties. The Government’s proposals look set to cut supply in the private rented sector, which will in turn inevitably risk driving rents up and making it harder for people to find a rented home. That is exactly what we have seen in Scotland, where similar measures to what the Government are proposing were implemented in 2017.

In England, we have already seen a seven-year drop, with Savills reporting that the number of rental properties on its books dropped by 42% in quarter 1 of this year compared with the same period in 2024. That means 42% fewer homes available for families, less choice and more pressure on rents. That is not theoretical; it is happening now, and the Renters’ Rights Bill is accelerating that trend.

Of equal concern is what effect an increasing number of people who are unable to rent privately will have on the temporary accommodation provision. An accessible private sector is vital to providing the housing stock that reduces homelessness pressure. If the Government are serious about reducing the demands on local authorities for temporary accommodation, they need to do far more than simply announce stop-gap measures. That is especially pressing, as has been repeated during this debate, when 172,420 children in England are living in temporary housing, which is up 7.6% on this time last year.

Only by making a concerted effort to reduce the cost of living and make private housing more affordable will the Government get people out of temporary accommodation and into long-term secure homes of their own. Sadly, the signs on that front are not encouraging, and the same goes for the Government’s plans to deliver 1.5 million homes. The most recent estimates for additional net dwellings for 2024-25 show the Government on course to miss their house building target by more than 100,000 homes this year.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the latest spending review, which promised more funding for the affordable homes budget, is less generous than on first appearance, with funding hardly different from previous levels. I am sure hon. Members will agree that Britain desperately needs new affordable homes to ensure the long-term supply of housing for those currently without a place to call their own. That is why under the previous Government, 800,000 people bought their first home, through schemes such as Help to Buy and stamp duty relief.

Yet in the current economic climate, more social and affordable homes look increasingly difficult to deliver. Ending homelessness must not be simply an idealistic ambition, but a clearly defined goal, with policies set out to achieve it. None of that is possible without a clear vision of what steps need to be taken. I urge the Government finally to publish—

Joe Morris Portrait Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)
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Will the hon. Member give way?

Gareth Bacon Portrait Gareth Bacon
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With great respect to the hon. Gentleman, given that I have to allow time for the Minister and the two proposers to speak, I cannot give way.

I urge the Government to finally publish the strategy in full and provide much-needed clarity to the individuals and organisations on the frontline of tackling homelessness about how they plan to support them to do so. No amount of good intentions or Government interventions can compensate for the unaffordable economic reality facing those trying to find permanent housing. I further urge the Government to consider the long-term consequences of many of their housing policies. A private rented sector, where supply is driven out of the market by over-regulation and costs that continue to rise, can lead only to even more people being unable to find a secure place to live—a fate the Government must do everything they can to avoid.

I end my remarks by calling on the Minister to respond more quickly and effectively to ease the temporary accommodation issue, to work with local communities to supply good-quality homes for families, and to publish the homelessness strategy, which was promised more than a year ago.

10:42
Alison McGovern Portrait The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
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It is a pleasure to serve, as ever, under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) and the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for their excellent co-chairing of the all-party group and for bringing this business to the House today. I hope it can be reported back to the Backbench Business Committee that 17 Back Benchers contributed, that hon. Members across the House care deeply about this issue, and that it would be good to have more parliamentary time dedicated to this important subject.

It is clear from this debate that there is appetite across the House to get this right. The APPG’s recent report provides excellent food for thought, as we complete the homelessness strategy, and I am grateful for it. I am going to get into serious trouble, but I have checked my diary for 1 o’clock on 11 November and, as far as I can tell, I am free—my diary manager can hate me later, but I think that is a date. I look forward to spending more time discussing the homelessness strategy with colleagues in the all-party group.

I never fail to feel lucky when I get home to Rock Ferry, where I live, and shut the front door. I have seen the consequences of homelessness on enough people in my life to know the fear it brings. Hon. Members in all parts of the House, as we have heard, care deeply that the Government have a plan to bring down levels of homelessness. I am hopeful that we can all work together on that. In opposition, it took me the best part of a decade to get a small number of new homes built in a derelict part of my constituency. That was not good enough. Things have to change. We can all see the number of people sleeping rough on our streets growing. The last annual count of people sleeping rough, which many have mentioned, was two and a half times higher than it was in 2010. It is not good enough. It has to change.

There is even more homelessness that we cannot see: the record number of people in temporary accommodation. It has been heartening recently to see a small amount of progress in our efforts to reduce the number of families and children in B&B accommodation, with the latest stats showing a drop—but I cannot say anything other than the facts: children living in B&B accommodation has to be brought to an end. Even if we have seen a small drop, it is not yet good enough.

That is why earlier this month the Government announced £84 million additional funding this year for homelessness and rough sleeping, bringing our total investment to record levels—more than £1 billion, and an increase of £316 million on the previous year. Our spending includes more than £644 million for the homelessness prevention grant, and more than £255 million for the rough sleeping prevention and recovery grant. That is a big investment, but, as Members have mentioned, we need a whole-of-Government approach. I will cover that in a moment. but I must also make the point that we will decriminalise rough sleeping by repealing the antiquated Vagrancy Act 1824.

Jonathan Brash Portrait Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)
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Throughout this debate the issue of community has been raised repeatedly. A challenge we face in my constituency is the fact that local authorities in other parts of the country often discharge their homelessness duty by packing families into taxis at short notice and moving them hundreds of miles to places where they have no connection with the community. That is bad for the individuals and bad for the communities such as Hartlepool. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that we have to end that practice in order to solve homelessness effectively?

Alison McGovern Portrait Alison McGovern
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That question was raised in the debate, as my hon. Friend rightly says. We are keeping the homelessness code of guidance under review, which includes the issue of out-of-area placements. I am particularly concerned about disruption to children’s education; if any Member wanted to give me specific examples that can feed into the homelessness strategy and demonstrate what is wrong, I would welcome that. I hope that also answers the questions raised about reviewing the guidance.

Separately from the funding that I just mentioned, we are also providing a huge investment in the local authority housing fund, which is there for councils to buy better accommodation and stop using expensive bed and breakfast hotels. That funding, we think, can get us up to 5,000 extra homes. Councils need funding certainty and flexibility to provide appropriate support to those who need it, which is why this Government are providing the first multi-year funding settlement in a decade. We are simplifying our approach to funding local government so that it can work flexibly to deliver on our shared priorities and make sure that people who need accommodation and support get it.

Numerous colleagues asked about multi-year funding. It is absolutely crucial, which is why we are providing it to councils, and I will work with organisations to make sure that we get more stability in the system. Those are the things that are happening already, but I know we have to go further. Later this year we will publish our long-term homelessness strategy.

My predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Rushanara Ali), did a great amount of work, on which I will build. We have heard from colleagues that there is a deep understanding of the importance of prevention, so I want to get this done as quickly as possible. We need to get that strategy out of the door and into the action and delivery phase. I say to colleagues, “Work with me to make sure we can get it done as quickly as possible.”

A couple of colleagues asked about the inter-ministerial group. I have already spoken to some ministerial colleagues on that group. We will meet formally very shortly, and I am sure those meetings will keep going—as colleagues have said—under the chairship of the Secretary of State. There are areas, including the strategy to reduce violence against women and girls, the child poverty strategy and our house building goal, where that homelessness strategy will need to connect with the other bits of work that the Government are doing. I am very seized of that. Colleagues will know that I spent some significant time working on the child poverty strategy, so I feel able to hit the ground running and work with my colleagues, the Safeguarding Minister, the Housing Minister and Health Ministers, to make sure that we get this done in a good way and as quickly as possible.

Liam Conlon Portrait Liam Conlon (Beckenham and Penge) (Lab)
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I welcome the Minister to her place. Part of what she mentioned is subject to the ongoing fair funding review, and the index of multiple deprivation is part of that. Alongside a number of London colleagues, I would like that to fully reflect housing costs and the impact of homelessness. Once housing costs are factored in, London has the highest rate of poverty in the country, with one in four households in poverty. Some good movement has been made on the positive indication of the income domain, but currently the fair funding review would give the same weightings to homelessness as to distance from a post office. Would the Minister meet with me and others—and I know that she has offered time later—to discuss that and to ensure that the formula reflects the cost of housing in London?

Alison McGovern Portrait Alison McGovern
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I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I am sure I will be meeting a lot of hon. Members regarding the fair funding review—he should not worry about that. I hear the point he makes about the indices of multiple deprivation, and we will have more to say about it very shortly. I know the situation in London only too well from my work over the past year. It is important to make sure that children in London do not grow up in poverty. The strategy we will publish on homelessness will get to the heart of the problem, with more homes incorporating all the work that we have done to change planning.

My hon. Friend the Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) mentioned planning officers. It is crucially important to get investment there so that we get those homes built. We also need to bring the Renters’ Rights Bill into effect, so that we can abolish section 21 evictions and prevent private renters from being exploited and discriminated against. The hon. Member for Orpington (Gareth Bacon) mentioned the effect of regulation; I wonder if he would support any regulation, because of the argument that we might reduce supply. Nobody wants over-regulation, but are we really saying that renters in this country are not vulnerable and in need of more protection? Most people think that is not right. I will work with him to make sure that we do all we can to get it right, but we have got to take a balanced approach.

Josh Babarinde Portrait Josh Babarinde
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Will the Minister give way?

Alison McGovern Portrait Alison McGovern
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I am conscious that I have a million questions to answer.

Josh Babarinde Portrait Josh Babarinde
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I will be quick. I want to repeat my questions from earlier on the subject of regulation. I asked earlier what the timeline was for out-of-area placement review, whether the Minister would meet me and Eastbourne borough council to discuss it, and whether she will urge Brighton and Hove city council to step up with their responsibilities. Can the Minister address those questions?

Alison McGovern Portrait Alison McGovern
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I did mention keeping the matter under review and, as I said, I am sure that we can meet to discuss it.

Prevention must be at the heart of our strategy. We heard that from the APPG’s report and I agree with it. That is why we are making record investment into prevention services and why the spending review protected that funding for the next three years. We have done work on top of that to increase it, because it is so important and such a crisis at the moment. As hon. Members have said, however, sometimes housing alone is not enough to tackle homelessness; people need support that is appropriate for their needs to sustain that accommodation. For some people, that means supported housing. Good-quality supported housing can prevent further cycles of homelessness and help people to get back on their feet.

I know that we have more to do to make sure that the supported housing system is functioning properly, and we are not stuck with some of the problems that the hon. Member for Harrow East mentioned. We are acting to implement the measures in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023. We consulted on locally-led licensing and new national supported housing standards for support and changes to housing benefit, and we will publish our report as soon as possible. I look forward to discussing that further—on 11 November, if not before.

We will press forward with the duty for local authorities to produce supported housing strategies, and guidance will come early next year. These strategies will help local authorities to understand how much and what type of supported housing they have, and identify where their unmet need is. A couple of Members correctly mentioned support for victims of domestic abuse and refuge providers. We want to take action on that; I have spoken to the Minister for Safeguarding and we anticipate working together on it.

We know that we cannot fix the housing crisis overnight, and that we have to act now to support people who are facing the worst forms of homelessness. That is why we are ensuring that people in temporary accommodation today are in accommodation that is suitable for their needs. I say again that we still have the underlying causes of homelessness—not enough homes and insufficient incomes—and a real crisis in rough sleeping and long-term rough sleeping, as mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree. I agree that this is a desperate situation that needs attention through the strategy.

Coming into this role, I have been utterly shocked by the situation regarding the use of B&Bs and our children. That is why we are working with the 20 local authorities with the highest level of bed and breakfast use for homeless families to identify solutions that actually work for their local circumstances. Backed by £8 million-worth of funding, the emergency accommodation reduction pilots will kick-start new initiatives to try to find the best possible way to get families into better accommodation. Whether through local authorities expanding what they are able to provide because of the investment we are giving, or preventing the use of B&Bs in the first place, we are working hard to try to make that happen.

I will finish there, as we will have more opportunities to discuss this issue. I welcome the involvement of all colleagues, and I stand ready to work with everybody on it. The Government inherited a crisis. We have tried to make some progress quickly, and I hope that colleagues will see that I have wasted no time in getting more money to local authorities to help now, while we complete the strategy. In the end, the long-term approach is what we need. I thank again my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree and the hon. Member for Harrow East for securing this debate and setting out that case.

I look forward to working with all Members in this House on our shared goals. No one in this House can be comfortable while our fellow citizens experience such discomfort. None of us believes that our future is secure while our children live in poverty. I do not think that anybody who has taken part in this debate will rest until those injustices are brought to an end.

10:58
Bob Blackman Portrait Bob Blackman
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I thank the Minister for her response, and I thank Members for, by my reckoning,18 speeches and four interventions, which demonstrate the importance of this debate. Through the Everyone In programme, we proved during covid that it is possible to solve homelessness and rough sleeping. Unfortunately, that programme was not built on afterwards to end rough sleeping.

Given some of the things that Members have added to the debate, I point out that the law exists to prevent local authorities from pushing homeless people far away from their homes, particularly if they have children or jobs. The law is in place; what is needed now is a coherent cross-Government strategy to combat homelessness, so that we can end it once and for all.

I thank you, Mr Efford, for your chairmanship, and I apologise to colleagues who were short-changed in terms of time. That demonstrates the importance of this debate, and how we need to have another debate on the issue in the near future.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered progress on ending homelessness.