National Plan to End Homelessness

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)]

Today, the Government have published their national plan to end homelessness. For the first time ever, this is a truly cross-Government strategy, with commitments from all relevant Departments to both reduce homelessness and rough sleeping and—where appropriate—to use their levers to improve the lives of children and families already in the homelessness system.

Both the number of individuals sleeping rough and the number of households in temporary accommodation have more than doubled since 2010. Behind these statistics are human lives—some who we can see sleeping on our streets and others who we cannot, often families and children living in unsuitable accommodation without adequate facilities.

This strategy sets out our clear vision for change. Homelessness should not be an accepted part of our society, but the scale of crisis we inherited means we cannot end it overnight. That is why this strategy sets out the actions we are taking to drive change across the short, medium and long term. It outlines the tangible actions and targets we have set ourselves for delivery this Parliament, which will act as milestones on the way to achieving our long-term vision.

In the long term, the strategy commits to delivering sustainable change to address the root causes of homelessness. This will include building more homes through our £39 billion investment in social and affordable housing; reforming renters’ rights, including banning section 21 evictions; and tackling poverty, as set out in our recent child poverty strategy, lifting 550,000 children out of poverty.

In the medium term, the strategy commits to supporting councils and public services to shift from crisis to prevention. We are investing £3.5 billion in homelessness and rough sleeping over the next three years via new, more flexible arrangements that prioritise prevention. Alongside this, we are outlining a long-term ambition that no one should leave a public institution into homelessness. This is backed up by both a new duty on public services to identify, act and collaborate to prevent homelessness, and a set of targets and commitments from other Government Departments that recognise that the causes of homelessness do not respect departmental boundaries.

In the short term, the strategy commits to taking immediate action to tackle the worst forms of homelessness.

First, it pledges to eliminate the unlawful use of B&Bs for families over the course of the Parliament, as well as to tackle unacceptable temporary accommodation. We will do this by increasing supply, improving quality and experience—including via cross-Government commitments to improve health outcomes and school attendance and reduce the risk of mortality when children are in temporary accommodation—and supporting local models through an expanded emergency accommodation reduction programme.

Secondly, it pledges to halve the number of people with complex needs who spend months or even years on the street by the end of the Parliament. We will do this through a new long-term rough sleeping innovation programme, as well as targeted funding for supported housing and the voluntary, community and faith sector.

We have looked at the issues carefully, across an interministerial group. We were supported by a lived experience forum so that people who have experienced homelessness could influence the strategy, and an expert group bringing together representatives from homelessness and rough sleeping organisations, local government and experts.

We have made our ambition clear and will hold ourselves to account to deliver on it. The strategy sets three new overarching national targets: to increase the proportion of households supported to stay in their own home or find other accommodation; to end the use of B&B accommodation for families except in short-term emergencies; and to halve the number of people sleeping rough long term. It also places targets and commitments on seven Departments across Government. We expect local partners to do the same, outlining clear local action plans and targets of their own to deliver on this vision.

The interministerial group will continue to meet to monitor progress and make sure that we deliver. We will report publicly on this progress at least every two years, and will feedback regularly to Parliament in the usual way.

To underwrite this ambition, today we have also announced a £50 million top-up to the homelessness prevention grant to further boost services available to people experiencing and at risk of homelessness this year. The allocations will be published on gov.uk here www.gov.uk/government/publications/homelessness-prevention-grant-allocations-2025-to-2026

Now more than ever, we need our partners to join us in this mission, including local councils, frontline public services, homelessness organisations, voluntary, community and faith groups. Together, this strategy will set us on the path to ending homelessness, and deliver immediate action to improve the lives of people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping now.

Copies of the strategy have been laid in the House this morning and are now available at gov.uk.

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