National Plan to End Homelessness
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months ago)
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The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
I would like to make a statement to the House about the publication of our national plan to end homelessness.
The strategy we have published today, I want to say from the outset, builds on the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Rushanara Ali) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner). I pay tribute to both of them for their considerable work.
This Labour Government inherited a homelessness crisis. Both rough sleeping and households in temporary accommodation increased radically from 2010. It is not just the people we can see sleeping in Westminster tube station as we leave this building, but the families and children we cannot see—those living in unsuitable temporary accommodation such as bed and breakfasts, without a kitchen and far away from family, friends and schools. For some, this has been a matter of life and death: 1,142 people died while homeless last year, and 74 children’s deaths were connected to temporary accommodation in the five years to 2024—58 of them were babies under one. Everyone deserves a roof over their head. Children in the worst housing our country can offer deserve the attention of this House. The strategy outlines the tangible actions and targets we have set ourselves for delivery this Parliament, which will act as milestones on the way to achieving the long-term vision.
We have looked at the issues carefully. As well as the interministerial group, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government convened a lived experience forum, so that the people who have experienced homelessness and rough sleeping could influence the strategy. We established an expert group to bring together representatives from organisations that support people, local government and experts to provide knowledge, analysis and challenge. I thank them all, on behalf of the House, for their contribution.
To tackle the root causes of homelessness and break the cycle of failure, we must build more homes. We want to build 1.5 million new homes, including more social and affordable housing—more than has been built for years. The new programme could deliver around 300,000 social and affordable homes over its lifetime, with about 180,000 for social rent.
Not having enough money is another cause of homelessness. The child poverty strategy, presented to the House last week, will lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030, including through the removal of the two-child limit. The implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will give more protection to renters by abolishing section 21 no-fault evictions, closing a key route into homelessness.
Building more homes and preventing homelessness overall will take time, but families living in squalid, overcrowded conditions simply cannot wait. The Government will eliminate the use of B&Bs for families in this Parliament and make sure that, on the rare occasion that homelessness cannot be prevented, temporary accommodation is liveable. We have already proven that that is possible through innovation funded by our emergency accommodation reduction pilots programme. The programme funds new work to find more sustainable accommodation, the inspection of properties, the acquisition of long-term accommodation for families, and support to make that transition. That is why, in this strategy, we are increasing funding to £30 million to stop a wider range of poor practice, including the overuse of B&Bs and unsuitable out-of-area placements.
There is £950 million for the fourth round of the local authority housing fund. That means councils can invest in owning their accommodation, rather than paying through the nose to rent bad accommodation, and we will explore partnering with social impact and institutional investors to use private finance and support from the National Housing Bank to yet further increase the supply of good-quality temporary accommodation.
To make sure that children in temporary accommodation get the support they need, we will introduce a new duty on councils to notify schools, health visitors and GPs when a child is in temporary accommodation—something that Members have called for. That will improve health outcomes and school attendance, and reduce the risk of mortality for those children. Most crucially, we will work with the NHS to end the practice of discharging newborns with their mums into B&Bs.
There is no worse feeling for any of us as public servants than seeing a man or woman on the street in need of help that we failed to give them. Over a third of people who have been sleeping outside have been doing so for months, and some for years. They have complex underlying needs and have been failed by services again and again. This cannot continue, so today we are setting a target to halve the number of people sleeping rough long term by the end of this Parliament. We will help more vulnerable people off the streets and into stable housing by investing £124 million over the next three years in supported housing services. We will provide £37 million to our partners working in the voluntary, community and faith sector to support recovery from homelessness. We will target £15 million for councils to test innovative approaches to helping people experiencing long-term rough sleeping, which is often complicated.
In a country such as ours, we really should be able to prevent homelessness; instead, hard-working professionals are stuck responding to crisis after crisis. Many councils have simply become overwhelmed by the costs, and people are having to face a night on the street just to access support in the first place. I am proud that the strategy prioritises the targeted prevention of homelessness among vulnerable groups, like young people and survivors of domestic abuse. We are providing more support to young people in supported housing, helping them to develop the skills and independence they need. By making work pay—crucially, by removing the work disincentive for those in temporary accommodation and supported housing —we are ensuring that a job is a reasonable and achievable outcome.
Public institutions should lead the way in preventing homelessness, and this strategy sets out our long-term ambition that no one leaves a public institution into homelessness, with cross-Government targets to start the change to reduce homelessness from prisons, care and hospitals. To force lasting system change, we will introduce a duty to collaborate—to compel public services to work together to prevent homelessness.
We are backing up all these actions with record levels of funding. We have invested more than £1 billion in homelessness services this year, including the largest ever investment in prevention services. Today I can announce the allocation of an extra £50 million top-up to the homelessness prevention grant this year, which further boosts the support available to people at risk of homelessness right now. The strategy sets out how we will provide a further £3.5 billion for homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, with much more freedom and flexibility for councils to get on and do.
We have made our ambition clear, and we will hold ourselves accountable for achieving the outcomes we seek. The strategy sets out three new national targets, alongside commitments from six of our most crucial partner Departments across Whitehall. The interministerial group on homelessness and rough sleeping will continue to meet to deliver the strategy, and will publish a report on progress at least every two years—although I have absolutely no doubt that hon. Members will hold us accountable for the targets week in, week out. We will monitor local progress with new outcomes metrics, with councils setting targets and publishing action plans.
On those goals—ending the use of B&Bs, halving long-term rough sleeping and increasing the rate at which homelessness is prevented—I know that everyone in this House wants all our places, up and down the country, to succeed. Now more than ever, we need our partners to join us in this mission: councils, frontline public services, homelessness organisations, and voluntary, community and faith groups. If we join forces, the strategy will set us on the path to ending homelessness and will deliver immediate action to improve the lives of people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping.
For every child without a bedroom to do their homework in, for every adult whose life could be turned around by an arm around their shoulder, and for every person who needs a home for Christmas and beyond: this plan is for you, and this Government are for you too. I commend this statement and our strategy to the House.
Gareth Bacon (Orpington) (Con)
I thank the Minister for her remarks and for advance sight of her statement. This is the third time that I have had the opportunity to discuss the issue of homelessness with the Minister in the last seven weeks. I do not doubt that all hon. and right hon. Members here today share a strong desire to end rough sleeping and homelessness for good.
Homelessness is a social tragedy wherever and for whatever reason it occurs. 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 our constituents can live in a safe, decent and secure home. The Minister’s reference to the horrendous figure of how many men, women and children have died while being homeless is a poignant reminder of why decisive action is critical. Although progress to that end was made under the previous Government, work remains to be done, and I offer my full support to the Government in their desire to end homelessness once and for all.
As policymakers have increasingly come to appreciate, homelessness does not simply begin when someone finds themselves on the street. Rather, it is rooted in long-term causes. For example, some people have persistent issues with mental health or substance abuse, offenders may be stuck between prison and the streets with no place to go, or young people may leave the care system without a fixed destination.
I am pleased that inspiration for cross-departmental working has been taken from the previous Government’s “Ending Rough Sleeping For Good” strategy, which brought seven Departments from across the Government together. The previous Government implemented StreetLink to provide more support for those who are sleeping rough or those concerned with someone who is sleeping rough. It connects local authorities and charities, and provides quicker support to those who need it most.
We welcome the Government’s taking action, but we need to see details of how the plan will be implemented in the long term to achieve their goals. Homelessness has reached a record high in the past year, with the number of households including children in temporary accommodation surging to historic highs. St Mungo’s estimates that long-term rough sleeping is up by 27% in London. It is vital that the Government look at the wider picture to see all the connected pressures. 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 secure, long-term homes of their own.
However, the Government are determined to spend ever increasing amounts on welfare, increase taxes and make it harder to employ people, and they must square that with the negative impact on people’s jobs. Labour promised to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament, as the Minister mentioned again today. To make good their promise, they must build 300,000 new homes per year, but with only 208,600 delivered in 2024-25, they are already 91,400 behind their self-imposed target. That does not bode well for the future.
The homelessness strategy has only just been published, and we will of course study it carefully, but I have some initial questions for the Minister. With the Government demonstrably failing to meet their housing targets, what guarantee is there that they will meet their new target on homelessness and halving long-term rough sleeping? How will they make that promise cast-iron? The Government are pushing more responsibility on to local authorities by requiring them to publish action plans, in addition to the homelessness strategy. How will that help? Will it just result in more paperwork?
The former Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), promised to repeal the Vagrancy Act 1824. Is that still the plan? If it is, will the Minister set out a clear timeline? The strategy mentions various new targets. What metrics will the Government use to assess the success or otherwise of the strategy? Will the Government report back to Parliament on progress regularly, and if so, with what frequency?
We all want the strategy to work. In that spirit, His Majesty’s Opposition will engage constructively with the plan and scrutinise it as it is implemented.
Alison McGovern
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments, and I thank hon. Members across the House for the cross-party way in which they have engaged on the strategy. We will disagree—I am sure we will disagree about the manner in which Opposition Members sometimes discuss social security—but where we agree, let us make every effort to put the people who need this strategy first. Those are people who have been on the streets for too long and children who deserve a proper childhood. I hope that we can share that ambition.
The hon. Gentleman asked about metrics. The Department publishes a number of datasets that we are using to analyse the metrics. He mentioned a couple of them—children in temporary accommodation and long-term rough sleeping—but we also know how many people present themselves to councils at risk of homelessness, and we want to increase the rate at which that is prevented. I will ensure that we report regularly to Parliament on that.
The hon. Gentleman mentioned repealing the Vagrancy Act. Some other bits of legislation need to come into force so that we can do that. I will write to him with the exact timings, because they relate to the business of another Department.
On the matter of councils’ strategies and whether it is just paperwork, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that it very much is not. The statistics show that in some areas, we have been able to get on top of B&B use—there are more details in the strategy—while in some areas, we have not. It is less about paperwork and more about transparency over outcomes and then taking action to ensure that best practice informs what is going on everywhere.
The hon. Gentleman asks about targets and how cast-iron they will be. Thinking about the state of house building, we were always going to have to ramp up over time. I am clear that the goals in the strategy are achievable, and I would welcome the support of the hon. Gentleman and the rest of the House in ensuring that we see them done.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
I call the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee.
Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)
I thank the Minister for her statement this afternoon. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Rushanara Ali) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) for their work; this is an area they were both committed to when they were in their previous ministerial roles. The Minister is correct that reversing the tide of homelessness should certainly be a national priority. It is not something that will happen overnight, and we know that further action will be needed to ensure that councils have the support they need for the pressures they are facing—particularly London councils, as the Minister will know, which are collectively facing costs of £5 million a day just on TA.
One of the ways the Government can help to alleviate those pressures and stop people becoming homeless in the first instance is with their rents. There have been asks of Government with cross-party support and from a number of organisations, including the Local Government Association, to look at local housing allowance rates to ensure that people can afford to rent locally so that they do not find themselves facing the threat of eviction and homelessness. Has the Minister discussed this matter with colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions and the Treasury to ensure that our residents and tenants do not find themselves evicted? I think of the many children who, two weeks from today, will be opening their presents in another B&B or in more unsuitable temporary accommodation. For them and for many others, we have to make sure we get this right.
Alison McGovern
I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for her words and for her long-standing commitment to tackling homelessness in the capital and right across the country. She is right to ask about council pressures, and we are trying to address the inadequacies of council funding across the country. At the moment, the costs of TA and the spikes in demand are putting pressure on councils that will make it even harder for them to balance their budgets, and that serves nobody. We have to get this under control, because it is a waste of taxpayers’ money, no less than it is a waste of childhoods. We have got to get on top of it.
My hon. Friend asks about incomes and whether I have discussed that with other Departments. This is a cross-departmental strategy, and Ministers from DWP and other Departments have been very involved in it. At the heart of the problem is the lack of social housing, particularly in London, which is why we need to build more. I am glad that this strategy comes closely after the child poverty strategy last week, which saw action to improve family incomes, not least the removal of the two-child limit.
Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)
We Liberal Democrats also welcome this statement and the additional funding, although I still have some questions. For Liberals from Beveridge to Stephen Ross, who introduced the first homelessness legislation into this Chamber, tackling homelessness and poor housing has been central to allowing people to lead the fulfilled and free lives that we want to see them lead. I pay tribute to the Shared Health Foundation for highlighting the tragic numbers, as the Minister mentioned, of children and babies who have died with temporary accommodation mentioned on their death certificate as a contributory factor. It is a truly tragic situation.
The 132,000 households in temporary accommodation, with 12,000 households on the waiting list in my Somerset council area, are far too many. Even one homeless house- hold is, of course, far too many. As the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) raised last week, there has been a 22% increase in the number of people homeless after being discharged from public institutions, which, as the Minister said, is a massively important aspect of this.
Our Liberal Democrat manifesto called for an end to section 21 evictions and for a cross-Whitehall strategy on homelessness, and we welcome both of those things—it is excellent that they have happened. However, we urge the Government to go further, in particular by increasing the social housing target from 18,000 to 150,000 social homes per year, or at least to the 90,000 social homes per year that are required according to Shelter and the National Housing Federation.
In welcoming the statement, I have a few questions for the Minister. What is the timeline is for completing the repeal of the Vagrancy Act provisions? Will the Government uprate the local housing allowance to represent the bottom third of rents and index-link that allowance to those rents, and when will housing benefit be effectively unfrozen by reviewing that local housing allowance? Finally, will the Government consider exempting homeless people from the shared accommodation rate, which both reduces the quantity and diminishes the quality of housing available to homeless people?
Alison McGovern
I thank the hon. Gentleman for welcoming the strategy and for joining the cross-party support for our objectives. It is important that we make it clear where we have agreement across the parties. I join him in welcoming the important work of the Shared Health Foundation.
On his final question, there are exemptions to the shared accommodation rate, and I would encourage him to have a look at that part of the strategy. On the local housing allowance, as I said in response to my hon. Friend the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee a moment ago, it is important that family incomes improve, which is why we took the steps we did in the child poverty strategy. I spoke about the Vagrancy Act in my response to the shadow Minister, but I will happily also send the hon. Gentleman the details about the steps that we are taking.
The hon. Gentleman also mentions the need to increase social housing, and I would recommend to him the detail on this published by the Minister for Housing, my hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Matthew Pennycook). I do not think any of us should have a cap on our ambition for building social and affordable homes, and I encourage all parts of the country to get on with spending the investment the Chancellor has allocated so that we can put a roof over people’s heads.
Sean Woodcock (Banbury) (Lab)
I welcome this strategy and pay tribute to the Minister and her predecessors for the work that has gone into it. I also pay tribute to the Banbury Youth Homeless Project in my constituency, which does great work with young people affected by homelessness, and extend an invitation to the Minister to come and visit the organisation at some point. One feature of the current housing crisis is that temporary accommodation is often anything but. The Minister has reiterated the Government’s ambition to build 1.5 million homes during the course of this Parliament, but I would be grateful if she could provide some detail on how the Government plan to accelerate the delivery of homes, particularly in areas like mine, where infrastructure issues are frequently a barrier to the delivery of much-needed affordable homes.
Alison McGovern
My hon. Friend knows that I am a fan of Banbury. I am hoping to get there before too long, and would be most grateful to meet that organisation; it sounds like it is doing sterling work, and I am grateful to them for it. It is true, as he says, that temporary accommodation is often anything but. The distinction we are trying to draw in the strategy is one of quality. While good-quality temporary accommodation often cannot help a family get back on the road to stability, we do see some really poor-quality temporary accommodation. To give people a long-term home where they can set down roots, as Members will know, our Planning and Infra- structure Bill has been proceeding through Parliament. That legislation will allow us to speed up the delivery of all housing, including the social housing we so desperately need.
Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)
I welcome this statement. We do need a massive house building programme, but I suspect the Government are going to have to strip away many more delays and controls if they are going to have any chance of meeting their own target. Does the Minister understand that there is a real lack of confidence in all this? The public see our own people on the streets without proper housing while people who enter the country illegally and migrants are held for months in comfortable hotels in idleness. If the Government were to be really robust and arrest, detain and deport those people, we could not only concentrate more resources on those genuinely in need, but actually save lives at sea.
Alison McGovern
As part of the strategy, I have worked closely with my colleagues in the Home Office to support their priorities, which are to secure our borders, deal with the dreadful criminality of people trafficking across borders and get the backlog down. That is the best way to achieve what the right hon. Gentleman suggests, which is to have the resources to support people who have fled conflict and need to rebuild their lives. We want to ensure, through this strategy, that we get help quickly to the people whose cases have been decided, with the outcome that they are a refugee and will be settling in the UK. That means councils knowing where the people are and the support being available. I welcome the right hon. Gentleman’s support for that approach.
Anneliese Dodds (Oxford East) (Lab/Co-op)
As my hon. Friend knows, homelessness pressures in Oxford are some of the worst in the whole country. Will she join me in commending Oxford city council’s plan to purchase 260 additional homes for temporary accommodation to get kids out of hotel rooms and other unsuitable accommodation and into decent-quality, much cheaper accommodation? What will she do to back initiatives such as that and to preserve councils’ ability to impose requirements on developers so that they also provide social accommodation?
Alison McGovern
I will join my right hon. Friend in commending Oxford city council’s plans. That is exactly the sort of action that this strategy envisages. We must get kids out of totally unsuitable B&B accommodation and help councils to have the resources to acquire much better accommodation that can stabilise family life. In order to back councils to do that, we have the £950 million local authority housing fund, which I mentioned earlier. I want to see local authorities charging forward to tackle this problem. Oxford’s council is not the only one that is getting this right—there are others across the country—but I would encourage all local authorities to look at the approach that Oxford is taking.
Rebecca Smith (South West Devon) (Con)
The excellent team at Plymouth city council work tirelessly to tackle homelessness, but pressures on the private rented sector in the city, increased because of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, has hindered the supply of permanent move-on accommodation. We know that it does not all need to be social housing and that we need private rented homes as well. The council puts the sustained number of Plymouth households in temporary accommodation at about 440 a month—half of them in B&Bs—of which 40 are families. Although I recognise support for councils to buy properties and aims for new home completions, the reality is that will not be enough. How long must households in Plymouth who are currently in temporary accommodation wait for a home? Is Plymouth one of the 20 local authorities being supported to eliminate B&B use as part of the child poverty strategy?
Alison McGovern
I will have more to say about funding for local authorities specifically in the coming days. As the hon. Member will know, we are expecting the provisional statement for local authorities. She mentions renters’ rights. Section 21 evictions are a significant cause of homelessness, so it is right that we have brought those to an end through the Renters’ Rights Act. We all want to see good-quality private rented accommodation too. Any area needs a mix of housing so that people can have choice and a good community around them.
Sarah Russell (Congleton) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for bringing forward this welcome strategy, to which I know she is personally committed. There is a long-term ambition in the strategy to reduce the number of days of school missed by children in temporary accommodation, but is there a specific target for that? On data transparency for children from more deprived backgrounds, will she set out in more detail how that will be achieved and in particular whether there is an ambition to have wider tracking of outcomes for these children—not just the number of school days lost but how many times they return to temporary accommodation in the course of their childhood?
Alison McGovern
I thank my hon. Friend for her question, which is a really important one. She will know that the Department for Education is introducing the unique identifier, which is at the core of the data we need to track this properly. On an ambition for the number of days lost, in an ideal world it would be zero. We need to get the work with the DfE under way and plot a course through the action plan over the coming weeks and months to get the numbers reduced significantly.
Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)
Glastonbury has the highest density of van dwellers in the UK, with around 300 people living in caravans. While some do choose this as a way of life, many are vulnerable or simply cannot afford to pay rent. They deserve a proper roof over their heads, as many of these caravans are simply not fit for accommodation. What considerations has the Minister made in this strategy to support those being exploited by unscrupulous van lords in this unregulated market? Will she meet me to discuss this ongoing crisis?
Alison McGovern
I thank the hon. Lady for her input into the strategy on behalf of her constituents. I would be happy to arrange a meeting.
Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab )
I thank the Minister for announcing a bold, radical and ambitious plan—much needed after the appalling record of the last 14 years—to end homelessness. I draw her attention to the target for eliminating the use of B&Bs for families. Having grown up in temporary accommodation and spent time in bed and breakfasts, I know that this is long overdue, so I thank the Minister.
The strategy is a major undertaking and will require cross-Government working. As a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, I am pleased that the awful practice of discharging people back to the street will end under the plan. To achieve this, does the Minister agree that, first, NHS trusts will have to start accurately counting those in hospital who are homeless, which shockingly does not already happen; and, secondly, that more support teams such as the wonderful Pathways teams in many trusts need to be rolled out across every eligible hospital trust?
Alison McGovern
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. He demonstrates his expertise, both from his life experience—and the House is so much the better for having people in it today who know what we are talking about—and the considerable work that he has done on this matter. He mentioned a couple of areas where we need to work with NHS and health colleagues. That is exactly the nature of the work we have been doing. I trust that he will use his place on the Health and Social Care Committee to hold us all collectively to account.
James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)
I welcome the ambition to end homelessness and pay tribute to the Purfleet Trust, King’s Lynn Night Shelter, the borough council and other groups that are working hard and collaborating to end rough sleeping and homelessness. How will this strategy and the resources help to support their efforts and focus on intervention and prevention and providing more local accommodation?
Alison McGovern
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question, and through him I would like to give my own thanks to the organisations in his constituency that he just mentioned, which I am sure are doing vital and important work. One of the biggest challenges for local authorities in recent years has been living hand-to-mouth, with year-to-year funding, which they then pass on to the organisations that they fund. Having three-year settlements, which ensure a level of predictability, will not only help organisations to plan better, whether they are a council or a voluntary sector organisation, but will mean that they can engage more in preventive work, because they will have enough time to see the benefits.
Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for her commitment on this issue and on the child poverty strategy, which is not unrelated to this work. I welcome the strategy she has announced today as a good first step in the right direction. The focus on prevention and the duty to collaborate are particularly important, as is the new money for supported housing. The lack of a Homes England plan for supported housing has been a real gap, and we have seen supported housing units close as housing associations have struggled to balance what they have to do on compliance, responsive repairs and new developments with wanting to offer supported units. Helping people to deal with the trauma of homelessness and the underlying reasons they became homeless in the first place is the best way of preventing recurrence, and we have seen that with Housing First programmes elsewhere. I was wondering whether the Minister will commit to monitoring the success of the supported housing element of the strategy and whether she will look to expand it in future if it proves successful.
Alison McGovern
I thank my hon. Friend for his apposite question. There is extra money for supported housing in the strategy, and we will be monitoring the success of that. There is also money for recovery, because there is no doubt that people live with the trauma of homelessness for many years, and we need to help them move forward.
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Ind)
I thank the Minister for the statement and for the aspiration to end homelessness, which is extremely welcome. I have two areas of concern. One is the insufficiency of council house building happening at the moment and the way in which almost every local authority seeks, in their terms, to balance a development, which includes properties for sale or properties for a rent much higher than a social level. That means that, in constituencies such as mine, a social cleansing of an entire borough ends up taking place as people cannot get council housing because so much is being built for other people to make money out of.
The second issue is related to the private rented sector. Even though I welcome the end of section 21 evictions, they are still going on and will do so until May. Hundreds—actually, thousands—across the country have been evicted through that process. Can the Minister not do something to bring forward the abolition of section 21 and look at the real issue, which is rent control within the private rented sector, because we are subsidising it through taxpayers’ money?
Alison McGovern
I think I have responded a number of times on our ambitions for social housing and mixed communities. On section 21, the right hon. Member will have noted that we are investing more in this year to help councils respond to the crisis that we face now, as well as having long-term objectives.
Chris Hinchliff (North East Hertfordshire) (Lab)
I welcome the Minister’s work on this important subject. Just after we came into office, Ministers committed from the Dispatch Box to a revolution in council house building. I have welcomed and noted the Minister’s statements on social housing, but she will be aware that there are growing concerns around an increasing corporate ethos in housing associations, many of which have a mixed record at best. I have heard directly from constituents about the stark contrast in security of tenure between when they were living in a council house home and now, when it is owned by a housing association. Given that Shelter estimates that nearly 400,000 people are currently homeless across the country, will the Minister set out what the Government will do to deliver that council housing revolution in constituencies such as mine?
Alison McGovern
Housing associations will have heard the comments that my hon. Friend has made. I am sure that they all aspire to treat their residents with the utmost respect and care, but they will have heard what he has said and will want to ensure that they fulfil that ambition.
Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)
I remind the House that under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which was implemented in 2018, 1.7 million people in this country have been prevented from becoming homeless in the first place. There is also a duty to refer on the health service, the Prison Service, the armed forces and every statutory body. If they come across people who are threatened with being homeless, they must refer them on.
The Minister talks about a duty to co-operate and assist, but we must ensure that if she needs to revisit that duty to refer and put the onus on co-operation between the two parties, that is fine. Equally, she could immediately implement the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 that I piloted through this place so that the supported housing provided is taken away from rogue landlords who exploit vulnerable people. I look forward to that being implemented.
In the limited time that I have had to read the document, there does not seem to be a mention of the roll-out of Housing First. We know that works. It puts a roof over people’s heads and then we can build the network of support they need to get them back on their feet. Finally, if she needs legislative change, my Homelessness Prevention Bill received an unopposed Second Reading in this place but awaits Government approval, a Committee stage and potential funding. If she needs a legislative process, it is there, ready to go.
Alison McGovern
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his work over so many years on this issue. He mentions a number of legislative vehicles, some of which have already made a change and some of which could. I will work with him to do what we need.
On the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act, he will have noticed in the Budget that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is leading some work on value for money in that sector. I will write to him with details on that. On the duty to collaborate, I am sorry to say that we are all aware, as constituency MPs, of terrible cases where homelessness could clearly have been prevented at a number of turns and was not. Two things are necessary: we need to introduce a duty to collaborate and work across the House to do that, but we also need transparency about results. We know how many people present themselves to councils with a risk of homelessness. This strategy sets out an objective to increase the number of cases when homelessness is prevented. Let us have transparency, let us have clarity about where it is happening and not, and let us make sure that councils have the tools in the box to do the job.
Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)
This is deeply personal to me because I was one of those children, 34 years ago, sat on a double mattress in a room doing my GCSE revision and my coursework, and then having to sleep next to my mum and sister in a room while all that was going on. That is why today is so remarkably important, and why I am so proud to stand here and hear that we are going to do something about this. I can tell this House that when that happens to you, you feel alone, you feel isolated, you feel that no one cares, and your dignity and self-respect sits in somebody else’s hands. There are thousands of children out there today living in cramped B&Bs. I am so glad that the Labour Government will end that unlawful practice and protect those families from being placed in those unsafe, unsuitable conditions. Something that is massively important for me is my patience, but on this issue it runs out all the time. What is the timeline to stop that happening to those children in B&Bs?
Alison McGovern
I thank my hon. Friend for that contribution. Children who are stuck in inappropriate B&Bs should know that they have a champion in this House, they should know that there is someone who has been there too, and they should know that they are not alone. On the timeline for getting kids out of B&Bs, we will end the use of B&B accommodation by the end of the Parliament in all but the most extreme cases—an absolute emergency. It is already the law—it has been for 20 years—that children are not supposed to be in B&Bs for more than six weeks. What on Earth is going on in this country when there are 2,000 children in such a situation? Let us work together, let us do something about it and let us bring those numbers down very quickly.
David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)
Before entering this place, I spent nearly two decades working for the YMCA. I have to say to Conservative Members, respectfully, that their cuts had consequences. It is no wonder that, as the money was taken away year after year, rough sleeping more than doubled since 2010. I therefore warmly welcome this statement. It is particularly important that we listen to people with lived experience of this—we have heard about some of that today—and that they help shape our services and solutions. In Stoke-on-Trent, Expert Citizens, under the leadership of Darren Murinas and Andy Meakin, is led by people with lived experience of homelessness, mental health problems and addiction, and they use their voices to help shape local services. Does the Minister agree that we must do all we can to support organisations such as Expert Citizens to continue their excellent work?
Alison McGovern
I agree with my hon. Friend. The fact that I and the ministerial team who produced this report agree with him can be evidenced by the foreword written by the people who did not just come to Ministers, give their experience and say what they have been through—although they did do that—but who shaped policy. That is exactly how it should be and I thank my hon. Friend for reminding us of that.
Dr Lauren Sullivan (Gravesham) (Lab)
I welcome the Minister’s statement and the focus on ending homelessness. I have met many constituents who have harrowing stories of homelessness, so this is a welcome step. There are not enough council homes, and where councils need to use private temporary accommodation, so much of that is of poor quality, yet those landlords are taking that public money. The additional funds are therefore welcome so we can expand the number of council homes. Will the Minister consider visiting Gravesham so she can see for herself the ambitious plans to help end homelessness?
Alison McGovern
My hon. Friend makes an important point about the use of taxpayers’ money. As she will have heard me say in previous responses, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is leading some cross-ministerial work on value-for-money questions on the provision of support for homeless people. That is important, because we cannot afford to waste a penny in this mission. I would be delighted to visit her constituency.
Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for the strategy and I agree with its stated aims. I especially welcome the ending of the unlawful use of B&Bs for families. We have already heard the case powerfully made by my hon. Friends the Members for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) and for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) as to why that is so important. In Morley, my team and I are supporting a particularly complex case of an individual who is homeless. Although the details are complex, the outcome is simple: they are sleeping in shop doors across Morley. Would the Minister consider meeting me to discuss this case to ensure that the strategy will cover them so that we can get them off the streets and into a home?
Alison McGovern
My hon. Friend makes his case well. If he would care to send me some details of the case, I will of course meet him.
Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for her statement. I hope she will accept my apologies for being a little bit late; I missed the first few seconds of her statement, although I have read it.
In a few hours’ time, I will be getting the train back to Scotland. This is a place where Scottish Labour recently forced the Scottish Government to declare a housing emergency, made worse by the fact that they had cut the affordable housing budget in Scotland by 37% between 2023 and 2025. Hundreds of households are in hostels and B&Bs in Edinburgh. We are now in the crazy situation where the council will use tourist tax income to build houses to move homeless people out of B&Bs and into those houses so that tourists can actually get in the B&Bs where they should be—it is absolutely incredible. I am sure that my constituents will be listening to the Minister’s statement with envy and thinking about how that money could be spent in Scotland if the Government there had the same kind of ambition.
The Minister will know that one of the categories of the homeless that people are most concerned about is veterans. She talked about public services and public institutions, and I know the Ministry of Defence is doing great work to prevent veterans from becoming homeless and supporting them when they do. Does the Minister’s strategy connect with what the MOD is doing?
Alison McGovern
My hon. Friend is of course right. The great city of Edinburgh deserves a lot better in so many ways, and I support everything he said. I long for the day when we can have a pan-UK strategy, including Scottish Labour, to end homelessness where we work together, which we will do.
On veterans, it will be important to us all to know that people who have served our country are supported in every aspect of their life afterwards, and it is an absolute disaster if a former member of the armed forces experiences homelessness. That is why the MOD has played a full part in the creation of the strategy. I have spoken about it directly with my hon. Friend the Minister for Veterans and People. Through her work on Operation Valour and other things, we are ensuring that we have in place the necessary care and support for veterans, because they deserve the absolute best.
National Plan to End Homelessness
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months ago)
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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.
[HCWS1154]
Local Audit Build-back: Progress
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months, 1 week ago)
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The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
Since this Government came to power last year, we have worked tirelessly to fix the broken local audit system in England, so people can trust that their council tax is being spent well. To ensure continued progress and that the Government’s wider programme of systemic reform is set up for success, we must speed up the process of rebuilding assurance at local bodies.
Clearing the backlog
The local audit backstop programme, comprising a series of six statutory publication deadlines for audited accounts, has continued to deliver against its statutory milestones. While the reset has meant many disclaimed audit opinions, as the Government made clear that we would last July, it has cleared the local audit backlog and made significant progress on restoring the discipline needed for timely publication of both unaudited and audited accounts.
After two backstops, there has been a significant improvement in the publication of audit opinions. As of 31 August 2025, 99% of local bodies had received and published audit opinions for all years up to 2022-23, and 94% had published audit opinions for 2023-24. Updated non-compliance lists for the latest backstop has been published today.
There has also been an improvement in the prerequisite publication of draft unaudited accounts. By 16 January 2025, just under 95% of bodies had published unaudited accounts ahead of the second backstop on 28 February 2025. Ahead of the 27 February 2026 backstop, 98% of bodies had already published their 2024-25 draft accounts as of 5 November 2025.
The advances that local bodies and audit firms alike have made in complying with the backstop programme have put the system in a much more secure and stable position. In turn, this will better enable the rebuilding of assurance and the implementation of wider reforms.
Progress on rebuilding assurance
Given the large number of disclaimed opinions, the backstops were announced alongside a five-year programme for building back assurance, with an aspiration that local audit recovers as soon as possible within that period.
Due to the scale of the local audit backlog and the limited capacity of audit firms and local bodies, the process of rebuilding assurance at local bodies was always going to be highly challenging. The process is technically difficult, resource-intensive and time-consuming, and the fundamental challenges facing the local audit system set out in the Government’s 2024 strategy remain a significant barrier to progress for some bodies. Both auditors and local bodies continue to navigate disproportionately complex financial reporting and audit requirements.
Our ambition is for local audit to recover assurance as early as possible, and we will continue to work with local bodies and audit firms to achieve this aim. However, despite significant efforts by all parties involved, progress has been slower than anticipated. It is now clear that the more immediate aspiration for the majority of disclaimed opinions driven by backstop dates to be limited to the first two years of this period—up to and including the 2024-25 backstop date of 27 February 2026—will not be realised. This will mean many local bodies continuing to receive disclaimed opinions for 2025-26 and 2026-27.
Evidently, it remains in the public interest that disclaimed opinions are cleared as quickly as possible. Effective local audit ensures transparency and accountability for public money spent on vital services. I am committed to working with all those in the system to do everything in our power to get back on track and ensure that assurance is rebuilt within the five-year period.
Measures to help
Today, the Government have written to all audit firms and to all local bodies in the process of rebuilding assurance, underlining the need for everyone to work together to do everything possible to accelerate progress and encouraging them to prioritise resources accordingly. I have asked them to work together to provide information to my Department on progress at individual bodies, including where there seem to be systemic issues with capacity, governance or financial management preventing assurance from being rebuilt. I have also requested that audit firms escalate serious issues to local bodies promptly, ensuring that my Department is also aware, and to issue statutory recommendations or public interest reports where appropriate. This will enable the Department to undertake its responsibilities in relation to overall accountability and stewardship and provide additional support and guidance most effectively.
In order to ensure that recovery can be completed within the overall five-year timeline, my Department will continue to assist affected local bodies, with additional training and support events led by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy planned for next year. Rapid work is also under way to develop a new approach to audit quality oversight tailored specifically to audits focused on the rebuilding of assurance.
The Government are also considering what further measures may be necessary to support both auditors and local bodies in accelerating progress, in line with the Government’s ambition of the system clearing all backstop-related disclaimed opinions by the end of 2027-28.
Ongoing reforms
The challenges encountered serve to further underscore the vital importance of the Government’s wider reforms, for which there remains strong and widespread support. The private sector has committed to working with us to rebuild the system, and its confidence in the reforms is demonstrable. All audit firms with existing local audit contracts have agreed with Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd to extend their current contracts for a further two years, until the end of 2029-30.
Recognising the urgency of change, new secondary legislation is now in force to raise local audit regime thresholds. This will help to free up auditor capacity by enabling audit firms to work in a more proportionate way.
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which contains key elements of our reform programme, is progressing through Parliament. The Bill includes measures to create the local audit office, which will provide vital oversight and streamline the system. The Government’s intention is for the local audit office to be established in autumn 2026. It will take responsibility for statutory functions in relation to regulatory oversight and standards from day one, subsequently increasing to its full range of duties as it builds capacity and staff transfer from existing organisations. The local audit office will take responsibility for the backstop programme and oversight of the process of rebuilding assurance at local bodies from April 2027. My Department has today published a transition plan, setting out detail on the timeline for implementing the new local audit system and how the transition will be managed.
Timeliness of assurance through audit is underpinned by the need for high-quality accounts and financial reports. As such, we are also working with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and the devolved Governments to address underlying issues and prioritise solutions to simplify financial reporting.
We will restore the local audit system back to health and rebuild confidence in local finances.
[HCWS1119]
Homelessness: Funding
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months, 1 week ago)
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The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. I congratulate the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) on his continued work on homelessness. He is respected across the House, as the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Orpington (Gareth Bacon), said, and we are all grateful for his work.
I thank the 14 hon. Members who have contributed to the debate. I again agree with the shadow Minister that that number, along with the 17 hon. Members who spoke in the last such debate, sends a message to people outside this place that tackling homelessness is a priority for Members on both sides of the House of Commons. I will encourage all officials in the Department to read this debate to understand where MPs are coming from and the priority that this subject represents for them. The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 of the hon. Member for Harrow East is a priority for me, and I want to work with him to implement it. I hear what he said about its delay and take that as an instruction to work harder to get it done.
More broadly, I thank hon. Members for their thoughtful contributions. As has been said, although homelessness is a problem of not having enough houses, it is not just a housing problem; it is a profound injustice that devastates lives. Everyone has a right to a roof over their head. Homelessness is a visible reminder that our society falls short in the duties that we owe to one another—something that the Labour Government are determined to change.
Some hon. Members mentioned the homelessness strategy, about which I can only say, “Watch this space.” I am determined to get on and publish it before Christmas, and I am really keen to work cross-party with hon. Members to make it work. We had an excellent parliamentary engagement session last week, which was less formal than this debate, and I think it works really well to have a combination of informal opportunities and debates such as this for hon. Members to talk through what they want to see in the strategy.
As we move towards the delivery phase of the homelessness strategy, it will be right for us to continue holding those parliamentary engagement sessions on a range of issues to make sure that hon. Members can feed into them. Last week, we talked through the preventive nature of the strategy from the point of view of housing and affordability, and how we can enable the support that the most vulnerable people need. A couple of hon. Members also made important points about people with complex needs.
You will forgive me, Mr Vickers, if I briefly mention the Budget. I have no doubt that, as with any Budget, not every hon. Member got all their heart’s desires, but ending the two-child limit was one of mine. I have met many kids in temporary accommodation, or otherwise living in poverty, who will benefit. I think of those children every day when I walk into the Department, and what we can collectively do to give them their futures back.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Rachel Blake) said, we announced in the Budget that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will lead a review, involving me and other Ministers, of value for money in homelessness services. It will include looking at ways to improve the supply of good value for money and good quality temporary accommodation and supported housing, such as through greater co-ordination in planning and procurement in different parts of the state.
A couple of hon. Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton (Jim McMahon)—who I commend for his work as my predecessor as Minister for Local Government, setting in train a really important set of reforms that will help in this area—mentioned the absolutely dire state of temporary accommodation, both for the kids in it and for the taxpayer, and the fact that we are not getting value for money at the moment. I encourage all Members to engage with that value for money review; we want to see some of the worst cases so that we can provide an evidence base.
Ayoub Khan
The Minister is making some powerful points in recognition of the challenges that we face. On the Budget, it will always be difficult to balance the books and maintain the status quo. Does she accept that the mammoth task of addressing homelessness can be achieved only with the substantial amount of investment that can come through wealth taxes—with wealthy people paying more for the vulnerable in society?
Alison McGovern
I think the record will show that the Government have taken action to bring in more tax from people who owe it—from those at the top of society—and that, because we have done so, we have been able to get rid of the two-child limit and commit £39 billion to build more social and affordable housing. That investment will make a difference in tackling the social injustice of homelessness.
As a few hon. Members mentioned, we are taking action now, even before we have published the strategy. This year, we have invested more than £1 billion— the largest annual investment to date—to enable local authorities to invest in prevention, provide tailored support and reduce the reliance on costly short-term solutions.
Several hon. Members also mentioned the tension that exists between ringfencing funding and allowing local authorities the flexibility to lead solutions that work for their place. Following the work of my predecessor, I am very glad that we have been able to provide local authorities with a three-year funding settlement and reconnect council funding with deprivation. The twin effects of those policies will help in that area.
We as Members of Parliament have to recognise, however, that there is a tension between curtailing local authorities’ freedom through things like ringfencing, which might target resources in the right place, and enabling them to tailor support to their local area. We will square that circle through the local government outcomes framework that we will publish shortly with the full settlement. We will show how we will have visibility and transparency over outcomes so that we can understand exactly where the problems are and take steps to tackle them. I look forward to engaging with all hon. Members on that framework.
We know that our investment in councils on homelessness is making a difference. The latest annual figures show early signs of progress, with 11% fewer households in bed-and-breakfast accommodation. That is a small bit of progress, but I agree with all hon. Members who have expressed real concern about where we are at the moment; we still have a long way to go.
Far too many people are experiencing homelessness and we have to provide the homes that they need, as I have said. Alongside increasing supply, as I mentioned, we need to reform the private rented sector. Section 21 no-fault evictions are a leading cause of homelessness, forcing thousands of families into crisis every year, but we have abolished them through the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. The best way to prevent homelessness is to stop it before it starts, and that is what the Renters’ Rights Act will do. We have also strengthened protections for the social housing stock by reforming the right to buy.
Many hon. Members mentioned supported housing, which is crucial. I say to the hon. Member for Harrow East that I am working very hard on the implementation of his Act. It is vital that we drive out rogue landlords. As I mentioned, I will welcome the engagement of hon. Members on our value for money review, because we know that we desperately need more resources in this area and some of the resources that are there at the moment are not being spent in the way that we as Members of Parliament would wish. We have a collective duty to resolve that situation in the strategy’s implementation phase.
I will conclude and allow the hon. Member for Harrow East to say a few words. In the end, we want to see lasting change, whether through social homes being built or our goal to improve disposable incomes so that people are less likely to be unable to fulfil their tenancy. Those are the steps that we can take to end homelessness for good and make sure, for anybody experiencing homelessness, that it is a brief period and never repeated. We need the cross-party collaboration that we have demonstrated again here today, and a whole-system approach. On hospital discharge, on prisons, on victims of domestic abuse and on veterans, I have engaged with Ministers in those areas and I will continue to do so. We have an interministerial group meeting coming up before we publish the strategy, and I can report that all those other Departments are engaging enthusiastically on the strategy.
We need to prevent homelessness. That will mean less cost for the state and, crucially, much better outcomes for families and individuals who desperately need better support. I thank all hon. Members who have contributed today. It has been inspiring, again, to understand how important this issue is. Most of all, I thank the hon. Member for Harrow East for securing the debate. I have absolutely no doubt that when it comes to debates in Westminster Hall on this subject, this ain’t going to be the last.
Local Government Best Value
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months, 1 week ago)
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The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
The Government are committed to taking the action necessary to fix the foundations of local government. Today I am updating the House on the steps that we are taking to support two councils to recover and reform: Birmingham city council and Nottingham city council.
Birmingham city council
Today I am publishing the Birmingham commissioners’ third report, alongside my response.
I welcome the commissioners’ assessment of the period since January 2025, in their first report since the start of all-out industrial action in the waste service. The commissioners highlight that the council has made clear, positive progress in key areas. A landmark equal pay framework agreement has been signed, and there has been externally validated improvement in children’s and adult services. These are important steps towards delivering the improvement that residents deserve and are testament to the committed and focused leadership of Councillor John Cotton and his cabinet, with the support of the commissioner team, and the hard work of council staff.
During this period, the council has been managing the impact of continuing industrial action by Unite the union in the council’s waste services. The Government’s priority throughout this industrial dispute is, and has always been, Birmingham’s residents. While industrial action continues to affect waste disposal services at Birmingham city council, in the spring the Government took decisive action, in lockstep with the council, to ensure that waste in the city can be safely and sustainably managed. The result has been to establish a regular, reliable waste collection service despite industrial action. But this new wave of strikes threatens to derail progress for residents. Despite efforts to resolve the dispute by the council, commissioners assess that the ongoing waste dispute has diverted attention away from the vital improvements that the council has been making and slowed progress in key areas. The council still has work to do to move towards financial sustainability and is being hampered by this ongoing issue. Once again, we urge Unite to call off these strikes and end the disruption and misery caused to local people. Unite has acknowledged that, on occasion, behaviour on the picket line during this dispute breached a court order. This behaviour must not be repeated.
The distraction of the waste dispute is deeply disappointing and frustrating for the residents of Birmingham. We have seen again that, due to protest and picketing action relating to a new industrial dispute between Unite and an agency of the council, Birmingham has had to suspend its waste collections today. Further disruption is in no one’s interest. This remains a local issue for employers and the council to deal with in the first instance, but in the interests of Birmingham residents we remain in close contact with commissioners and the council and continue to monitor the situation. Commissioners continue to support the council in its operational response to the ongoing dispute, and in developing much-needed transformation plans for the waste service.
If the council can continue to progress and focus on improving critical areas of risk, we would hope to review the shape and focus of the intervention, with phased reductions at the appropriate time. I have asked Tony McArdle OBE to set out options for that in the next report from the commissioner team, as part of the work he is leading on the intervention exit strategy.
It is vital that the council is able to continue the pace at which it is delivering necessary improvements. I look forward to receiving an update on the steps taken to tackle the remaining risks and the development of an exit plan through the next commissioners’ report.
Nottingham city council
Nottingham has been in intervention since January 2021, and commissioners were appointed in February 2024.
On 21 November 2025, I published the commissioners’ third report, received in August, alongside my response. I am encouraged by the commissioners’ report, which highlights the steady progress being made by the council in delivering its improvement plan. It is reassuring that the council is now showing some “early signs of a shift towards continuous improvement thinking” and that positive changes are beginning to embed. I note that while noting that some key challenges remain. To maintain capacity and oversight until the current directions expire on 22 February 2026, the Secretary of State has made some changes to roles within the existing commissioner team and appointed Sharon Kemp OBE as lead commissioner, with Tony McArdle OBE and Margaret Lee OBE continuing as commissioners.
I look forward to receiving the commissioners’ next report in December and will carefully consider this before determining the next steps for Nottingham.
Conclusion
I am committed to working with these councils to ensure their compliance with the best value duty and the high standards of governance that local residents expect. This Government are working to deliver a consistently fit, legal and decent local government sector that provides good-quality essential services for all residents.
I will deposit in the House Library copies of the documents referred to, which are being published on gov.uk today. I will update the House in due course.
[HCWS1116]
Oral Answers to Questions
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)
The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
Our homelessness strategy will be published soon. Our overall goal will be to prevent homelessness before it starts, saving people from trauma and saving taxpayers the cost of failure. Councils can use our homelessness funding flexibly to meet those needs, including by commissioning Housing First services, which evidence has shown can transform the lives of people with complex needs.
Patrick Hurley
Housing First is a tried and tested, proven intervention to reach those who most need our help, so will the Minister expand on what plans she has to roll out Housing First, especially in the Liverpool city region, to ensure that we work effectively across state agencies and that we support people experiencing homelessness into stable, long-term housing?
Alison McGovern
I thank my hon. Friend, who has a long-standing record of campaigning for those who have experienced rough sleeping or homelessness. Housing First, as we have discussed, is one way that areas can provide person-centred and trauma-informed support for people with complex needs, which is important in preventing long-term rough sleeping. Areas across England can use flexible funding, including our £255 million rough sleeping prevention and recovery grant, to do so. The Liverpool city region combined authority, which includes his constituency of Southport, received nearly £4 million of funding through the grant this year.
Mr Mark Francois (Rayleigh and Wickford) (Con)
We do need to build more homes, including more affordable homes, but they have to be built in an environmentally sustainable way. Why are Ministers, through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, taking powers such that any planning application for more than 150 houses, if turned down by the democratically elected councillors, is sent straight to the Secretary of State? Why have local elections and elect people who know their own area to take decisions if they will simply be overruled automatically by someone whose whole mantra is “Build, baby, build and let the devil take the consequences”?
Alison McGovern
There we have it: in a question about homelessness, we have a Tory MP getting up and asking how he can say no to more homes. [Interruption.]
David Simmonds (Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner) (Con)
When we look at the statistics, we see that homelessness and rough sleeping are surging under this Government, with London and the south-east hardest hit where social housing delivery has collapsed under the current Mayor of London. Will the Minister commit to lifting the restrictions that this Government have placed on councils’ use of the homelessness reduction grant, and will she commit to funding councils for the growing impact that asylum seekers are having on homelessness pressures, so that Housing First can become more than just a slogan?
Alison McGovern
Homelessness and rough sleeping doubled under the previous Tory Government. Our homelessness strategy will be published very shortly. Last week we published our policy statement on the fair funding review, which will stabilise council funding and target it at those areas with significant levels of deprivation. I look forward to the hon. Member’s support in ensuring that councils have the powers they need to ensure that everyone has a roof over their head.
James MacCleary (Lewes) (LD)
The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
The Government are changing the way we fund local authorities, reconnecting funding with deprivation after 14 years of Tory Governments cutting councils in the poorest places. The vast majority of upper-tier councils will see their income increase in real terms over the next three years. For 2025-26, the local government finance settlement made available up to £577 million for Buckinghamshire council—a 5.7% cash-terms increase in core spending power on the year before.
Greg Smith
That is a curious answer, because modelling by the County Councils Network indicates that, assuming there is a punishing 5% annual council tax increase, core spending for Buckinghamshire council will go up by only a below-inflation 2.2%—a real-terms cut. What assurance can the Minister give Buckinghamshire council that it will not find itself with a real-terms cut in spending power as it delivers essential services to my constituents?
Alison McGovern
As I said in an earlier answer, we made a policy statement on the fair funding review consultation last week. In addition, as I have said, the vast majority of upper-tier councils will see their incomes increase in real terms over the next three years. More details will come as we finalise funding arrangements. The Department will work closely with Buckinghamshire and all other councils to ensure that their finances are stabilised after 14 rocky years.
Callum Anderson (Buckingham and Bletchley) (Lab)
Multi-year funding settlements can help councils such as Buckinghamshire to prepare for the future and ensure the continuity of local services, but that approach was not necessarily applied by the last Conservative Government. In the north Buckinghamshire towns and villages that I represent, there is particular pressure on the economic and social infrastructure that meets rural requirements. Will the Minister set out in a bit more detail how the fair funding review will take all that into account so that residents in my community have the services they need?
Alison McGovern
I know how important it is for my hon. Friend to champion those towns and villages. He is right to say that the three-year funding settlement for councils will help, including with forward planning. Where we are considering cost pressures—those in adult social care, for example—it will help us to change the way in which services are delivered so that we can support people and ensure that councils across the country, such as Buckinghamshire, have more stable finances in the future.
Maureen Burke (Glasgow North East) (Lab)
Dame Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
Our Labour Government will build the homes that Britain needs and put our country on a path to end homelessness for good, unlike the Tories, who—if people have not heard us say this already today—allowed homelessness and rough sleeping to double. We will publish the child poverty strategy and the homelessness strategy shortly, and both will set out steps to defend families against the risk of getting stuck in temporary accommodation.
Liam Conlon
The number of people in temporary accommodation in my constituency soared during the last 14 years. Hundreds of families in Beckenham and Penge are stuck in unsuitable accommodation for months and years on end, and one in 50 Londoners are now living in temporary accommodation. From speaking to fantastic local charities such as Living Well, as well as local schools and NHS staff, I know that the housing crisis left by the last Conservative Government is also a leading driver of deprivation and inequality. Will the Minister set out what her Department is doing to address that?
Alison McGovern
That is a very important point: London is a fine city, but we need to ensure that everyone there is housed well. That is why the Labour Government are investing more than £1 billion in homelessness services this year—an increase of more than £300 million. That includes £10.9 million of top-up funding, announced last month, to increase access to support services in areas with the highest number of children in temporary accommodation, like the one mentioned by my hon. Friend. We have to get everybody in this country properly housed.
Dame Meg Hillier
As the Minister says, we do need that housing. There are some solutions locally, where Education or Health land has become available. Will she undertake to talk to those Department—I can talk to her in more detail about local issues—to ensure that that land can be released as soon as possible, with the prospect of it becoming social housing for local families?
Alison McGovern
My hon. Friend is an expert in these matters. She knows that the Secretary of State has taken recent steps to make sure that we do build homes, including social and affordable homes, in London. We will certainly work very closely with her, and with the information she mentions, to get homes built.
Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)
There are nearly 300 households in temporary accommodation in Somerset, and 120 of them include children. Somerset is spending nearly £3.4 million per year on additional temporary accommodation to help to meet that demand, but it is clear that a long-term solution must be supported. What steps is the Minister taking to increase the number of affordable homes to help address that situation?
Alison McGovern
The homelessness strategy will be published soon, so the hon. Lady does not have long to wait. She characterises the situation well. We can fund sticking plasters and we can fund help, but in the end we have to get to the heart of the matter: No. 1—build homes; No. 2—make sure that families have enough money coming in to pay the rent. That will be at the heart of our strategy.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
With London councils now spending £5.5 million per day on temporary accommodation, it is clear that we need to build more social homes in London. Richmond council has been prioritising sites that it is selling for social housing. As the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) has just suggested, will the Minister look at incentives for other public bodies—whether it is the NHS or Government Departments—to prioritise for social homes land and buildings that they no longer need and are selling, as I have been campaigning for with respect to the former Teddington police station in my constituency?
Alison McGovern
I refer the hon. Lady, who asks a very reasonable question, to the response I gave some moments ago. Collectively, we must leave no stone unturned when it comes to available land for housing, particularly in the capital, where we desperately need more social and affordable homes.
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee.
Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)
I thank the Minister for outlining those points. The situation is not just isolated to London; many councils are seeing an overspend—still going up —in this really tricky area. Just today, Epsom and Ewell borough council reported an overspend of £500,000, rising to £800,000 by next year. Slough estimates a £22 million overspend on TA; Woking, a £330,000 overspend; Waverley, a £165,000 overspend; and Waltham Forest, a £31 million overspend. That is just on temporary accommodation. This situation is not sustainable financially for councils or taxpayers. What more can the Minister do? Can she speak to Treasury colleagues about the big sticking point: the increase in and freeze on local housing allowance, which is not allowing people to live locally and rent locally?
Alison McGovern
I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for setting out that, aside from the fact that we care about temporary accommodation because every child deserves the space to play and do their homework, this problem is putting local councils under a financial pressure that is not bearable. We have to get a grip of this situation. We will have more to say about this crucial issue in the homelessness strategy, and I look forward to engaging with the Chair and the whole Committee on it.
Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
Westmorland has 3,500 empty properties—the fifth highest number of any local authority in the country. The council has invested in three additional staff to make sure we bring some of those properties back into permanent use to house homeless people, but what powers could the Minister give the local authority that would bolster its existing powers to requisition homes that have been empty for a long period of time to be used as temporary and emergency accommodation for people in communities like ours?
Alison McGovern
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his important question. We all want to see empty homes brought into use, and councils already have extensive powers in this area. My job as the Local Government Minister is to make sure that we stabilise councils’ funding so that they are able to invest in that action, but if the hon. Gentleman would like to engage with the Department on the powers he would like to see, our door is very much open.
James McMurdock (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Ind)
The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
I thank the hon. Gentleman—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. The Minister is answering the question. Please, Mr Law: you could at least wait until she has finished before entering the Chamber.
Alison McGovern
The Government keep the homelessness code of guidance under regular review, and this will continue once we have published the strategy that I mentioned previously. We will develop further good practice guidance and toolkits to support local government to deliver homelessness services.
James McMurdock
Ministers will be well aware that the maximum period of time for which the most vulnerable people should ever be placed in temporary accommodation is six weeks, but I have seen repeatedly from Labour-run Basildon council a tweaking and gaming of the rules, whereby a single-room bed and breakfast property is incorrectly reclassified as a self-contained unit through the addition of a microwave and a fridge. Vulnerable people, including pregnant women or women with children, are being crammed into one room for periods of time that we recognise as unlawful, essentially because the rules are not strict enough. I do not blame Ministers for that, but I do blame the local Labour council for abusing those rules. What will the Minister do to strengthen things up?
Alison McGovern
As the Homelessness Minister, my responsibility is to get the homelessness strategy published so that we can look at issues such as those the hon. Gentleman has mentioned, make sure that the guidance is good enough, and—most importantly—get our country’s children out of temporary accommodation and give them a proper roof over their heads.
Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)
I declare an interest, as I formerly worked for a homelessness charity in Harlow called Streets2Homes. Can the Minister tell me how the increased funding of £1 billion to tackle homelessness will support local authorities—which we have discussed—as well as Streets2Homes and other charity groups to get people off the street and into secure tenancies?
Alison McGovern
I would be grateful if my hon. Friend would pass on my very best wishes and thanks to Streets2Homes. In the best case, the money we are investing can stop homelessness before it starts through good advice. If a family or an individual do find themselves homeless, support can be in place to get those people into a more stable situation and properly housed. Every penny is worth it, because in the end, long-term homelessness costs the state more.
Graham Leadbitter (Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey) (SNP)
Jo White (Bassetlaw) (Lab)
The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
On Thursday 20 November, the Government published a policy statement setting out our plans for the 2026-27 to 2028-29 multi-year local government finance settlement. Through the settlement, we are introducing a system based on need and evidence. In doing so we will target a greater proportion of grant funding at deprived places, ensuring best value for money for taxpayers.
Sarah Hall
In Warrington we see some of the starkest inequalities anywhere in the country. One area is ranked the 899th most deprived, and the highest position is 33,480th, a gap of more than 32,500. Those vast disparities are masked by population-weighted averages, with Warrington ranking 199th overall and only 43rd in range. Will the Minister ensure that fair funding 2.0 truly reflects vast internal inequalities, so that resources reach the communities most in need?
Alison McGovern
I admire my hon. Friend not only for standing up for Warrington, but for her command of the statistical detail. The fair funding review will distribute more funds to deprived areas, and, as she has just demonstrated, the distribution is underpinned by granular data from households in lower-layer super-output areas consisting of between 400 and 1,200 people. That means that we can account for pockets of deprivation within more affluent areas. More broadly, I will happily work with my hon. Friend to ensure that we can stabilise Warrington council’s finances, and I will ensure that officials are in touch with the council.
Jo White
Under the last Government, cash-strapped authorities like Bassetlaw district council saw support grants slashed from a 66% funding commitment in 2011 to a 25% commitment in 2024. The compounded damage that this has done to areas like mine can be calculated in multimillions of pounds. Many authorities are on their knees. Can the Minister explain in more detail how they will be able to plan for the year ahead?
Alison McGovern
I know that my hon. Friend always stands up for her constituency, and that she always will. Under our proposals, shire district councils are expected to see an average funding increase of 2.7% over the spending review period. Across the Department, we will support district councils in that and other ways, and I look forward to discussing the issue in detail with my hon. Friend and her council.
Ben Obese-Jecty (Huntingdon) (Con)
Cambridgeshire fire and rescue service is funded through a formula that relies on population density and sparsity figures from the 2001 census. Since 2001, Cambridgeshire has grown by over 150,000 people and 30,000 new homes, making the service one of the leanest per head in the country. We have effectively built a city the size of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire and given it no further funding. Over-reliance on council tax to bridge funding gaps undermines the core principle of risk-based resource allocation, so what assurances can the Minister give me that the fairer funding review 2.0 will not require the difference to be made up by simply increasing the council tax precept by the maximum?
Alison McGovern
The hon. Gentleman mentions fire. The Minister responsible and I are keeping this issue under review, and we are happy to hear further from him if he has concerns about it.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
Rural counties like Herefordshire face additional costs in delivering services because of rurality. Extra cost pressures mean that we need another £35 million next year to provide the same services, but it looks like the fair funding review will reduce central Government funding for Herefordshire by £12 million. Does the Minister recognise the extra costs of rurality, and will she ensure that the fair funding review properly allocates the funding that rural communities need to deliver public services in a fair way?
Alison McGovern
When it comes to rural areas, there are particular challenges for public services. This Government have increased funding for council spending on areas of demand, such as adult social care. We need to make sure that all councils can be financially stable, and can develop the way that they deliver public services, particularly given the challenges that the hon. Lady mentions.
Emma Lewell (South Shields) (Lab)
Rachel Hopkins (Luton South and South Bedfordshire) (Lab)
The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
Under our new approach to funding, in places like Luton, which were starved of the resources that they needed for far too long, and for which we can evidence significant levels of deprivation, councils can expect to see the resources that they need in order to help people properly.
Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)
In cities such as Portsmouth, outdated formulas for local authority funding have long failed to reflect real levels of deprivation. I would like to see a Labour Government increase support for children’s services, with a fairer system using up-to-date data. That would make an enormous difference to my constituents. Will the Minister meet me to ensure that funding allocation is being considered for Portsmouth to finally receive the funding it deserves?
Alison McGovern
Yes, I will very happily meet my hon. Friend. She is an incredibly powerful champion for Portsmouth and I would be very happy to meet her to discuss her council’s funding.
Blake Stephenson (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)
Alison McGovern
We recently put forward our response on improving standards. We are looking for an opportunity to take that forward, for the reasons the hon. Gentleman mentions.
Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)
I have residents from Tillicoultry who have not had access to their homes for two years because of RAAC—reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Their lives have been turned upside down. A year ago, the Scottish Government were given the largest settlement figure in the history of devolution, but they have not helped my residents. Will the Secretary of State inform me what discussions his Department has had with regard to residential RAAC with Scottish Government counterparts?
Alison McGovern
With Cornwall Labour Members of Parliament standing up for Cornwall in this House as they are, I feel assured that Cornwall will be in a much better place. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend to make sure that that is the case.
Alison Griffiths (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)
Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)
For years, Derby residents have felt the full force of Tory austerity, with many services at breaking point. Does the Minister agree that Derby deserves better, and what can the Government do to ensure that the fair funding review delivers for communities such as Derby?
Alison McGovern
Councils up and down the country deserve better, especially in great cities like Derby—and with my hon. Friend as their MP, his community will not want for a brilliant champion.
Sir Jeremy Hunt (Godalming and Ash) (Con)
I thank the Minister for Housing and Planning for his constructive meeting last week on the community infrastructure levy. Could he tell the House whether Liberal Democrat-controlled councils such as mine in Waverley should be charging the community infrastructure levy to private householders who do a straightforward extension on their house?
Alison McGovern
I am considering the issues that Hillingdon is facing, which are really serious and important, and I will be in touch with my hon. Friend soon so that we can discuss them extensively.
Connor Naismith (Crewe and Nantwich) (Lab)
Cheshire East council area has pockets of severe deprivation, centred largely around my constituency. Under the previous Government, local government funding allocations never really took account of those deprivations. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how we can rebalance funding towards the deprived areas in my constituency that have been left behind for too long?
Alison McGovern
I will happily meet my hon. Friend—great railway towns like Crewe ought to be invested in. He will have heard from previous answers today that the new measure of deprivation uses fine-grain data, so we can identify those pockets of deprivation, like in Crewe and Nantwich. I look forward to talking with him at length on this subject.
Ian Roome (North Devon) (LD)
In rural areas like my constituency, private renting is very expensive and is unaffordable to many. What is the Minister doing to ensure that more housing is available at social rent rather than market rent, which people can simply not afford?
Multi-year Local Government Finance Settlement and Fair Funding Review
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months, 3 weeks ago)
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The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
Today, the Government have set out details of the first multi-year local government finance settlement in a decade, through which we will deliver the long-overdue fair funding review 2.0 reforms and deliver on our commitment to make the system fairer and more transparent.
The last decade and a half saw local government services slashed to the bone by a misguided programme of austerity. The services people see every day outside their front door were systematically undermined, and people’s lives got harder as a result. We celebrate the hard work of councillors, frontline staff and mayors, who kept vital services running during those hard years, but they did not get the backing they deserved from central Government.
Austerity expected local government to act as caretakers, providing only the most basic statutory services. Our long-term aim is a future where councillors have the freedom to innovate, rebuilding public services, renewing the public realm, and investing in their high streets, youth clubs, and libraries. The past has been written, but the future of local government is up for grabs. This is about providing visible proof that the state can still improve people’s lives and keep its promises. The journey will at times be difficult, but the end result will be a new role for councils as agents of renewal.
This Government believe in treating every area fairly. Some authorities have benefited disproportionately from the unfairness of the current system, something which the previous Government recognised when consulting on funding reform. However, they did not take action. This Government are taking the tough decisions to create a fairer, evidence-based funding system. This means that poorer local authorities that have been unable to generate as much funding through local tax will finally receive the funding they deserve. As a result, areas will be able to rebuild the public services on which our communities rely.
We recognise the challenging reality still facing local authorities, and the sky-rocketing demand for critical services that cannot be overcome by these changes alone, but these reforms are a vital part of getting the sector back on a sustainable footing and ensuring that every pound goes where it is most needed.
The Government are bringing forward a wider reset, which will radically redefine local government in England, making the system fit for the challenges that the country faces in 2025, and making sure that we have strong local leaders and councils, ready to drive economic growth, grow our towns and cities, and raise living standards for working people in every region—the Government’s No. 1 mission. That is why, as well as introducing funding reforms, we remain committed to ending the two-tier system in this Parliament; to focusing on outcomes, over micro-management; and to overhauling local audit, conduct and standards. Yesterday, I launched a series of consultations on local government reorganisation, published on gov.uk.
We also thank local government, interested organisations and members of the public who have engaged with our consultations on reforming the local government funding system over the past year.
The broken system we inherited
The austerity of the 2010s was imposed on every community, but the worst effects were felt by those in the most deprived local authorities. The places which historically had been most supported by Government were left furthest behind, breaking the link between funding and need. Dozens of fragmented funding streams, outdated funding formulas—including those that used data from the 1970s—and short-term settlements contributed to the overall issues in the funding system. As a result, many councils have been pushed to a financial cliff edge, meaning poorer services for residents.
The first steps toward a fairer approach
Undoing this damage will take time, but this Government took immediate steps in our first year to make funding fairer. We made over £69 billion available to local authorities through the 2025-26 settlement. That included a £600 million recovery grant, targeted at areas that suffered most from austerity, and that had greater need and demand for services, and less ability to raise income locally. At the spending review, we announced over £5 billion of new grant funding over the period 2026-27 to 2028-29 for local services, including £3.4 billion of new grant funding, which will be delivered through the multi-year settlement. We have been working closely with the local government sector over the past year. We have consulted twice on our proposals for reform and once on resetting the business rates system, and we now plan to put them into action.
Fairer funding through the 2026-27 multi-year settlement —undoing a decade of damage
This Government believe in treating every council and community in England fairly. We will act where the previous Government did not to target funding to deprived areas, enabling them to deliver vital services for communities up and down the country. We are:
Giving councils more certainty with the first multi-year settlement in a decade, which will allow local leaders to focus on longer-term financial planning and opportunities for ambitious regional growth plans, rather than giving them year-to-year settlements, and an opaque funding system of fragmented pots.
Providing better access to frontline services by closing the gap between local deprivation and council funding. We are using up-to-date data to paint a true picture of councils’ needs and resources—a picture that encompasses population projections, the 2025 English indices of multiple deprivation, cost of service delivery, and demand for services.
Reforming children’s social care, with over £2.4 billion over the settlement to support vulnerable families by focusing on prevention and early intervention. We are updating the children and young people’s services formula, so that it uses the latest index of deprivation affecting children. That will mean that no matter where people grow up, they get the support they need to have the best start in life.
Providing at least £2.4 billion for a new, ring-fenced, combined homelessness, rough sleeping and domestic abuse grant over three years, which includes dedicated funding for councils to invest in prevention. This will move us away from over-reliance on temporary accommodation, which has led to unsustainable costs for councils in recent years.
Undoing the damage of austerity by maintaining the targeted £600 million recovery grant allocations from 2025-26 across the multi-year settlement. We are also introducing a recovery grant funding guarantee to upper-tier authorities in receipt of the grant.
Unlocking the dream of home ownership for more people by boosting incentives for councils to build new homes, as projections on future house builds will be omitted from funding allocations over the settlement, so authorities will benefit from all additional council tax raised for each new home they build.
Improving efficiency and value for taxpayer cash by cutting needless paperwork and red tape by simplifying 33 funding streams, worth almost £47 billion over three years, to provide councils with certainty and more flexibility to invest in community priorities.
Supporting councils through change by providing funding floors, and phasing in new allocations across the multi-year settlement to provide more financial protection for councils and consistency of services for local people.
The recovery we embarked on in 2025-26 is just the beginning for deprived places that suffered most from austerity. We will maintain recovery grant allocations from 2025-26 across the multi-year settlement as a targeted fund to support those worst affected by austerity. We will also provide a funding guarantee to upper-tier authorities in receipt of the grant, which will ensure that they see a more than real terms increase across the multi-year period, except for where a £35 million cap applies.
The Government will maintain core referendum principles as they were in 2025-26 over the multi-year settlement, including core council tax and adult social care precept referendum principles of 3% and 2% respectively. This acts as an additional democratic check and balance, giving taxpayers the final say on council tax increases through a local referendum. The £3.4 billion in new grant funding in the settlement, taken together with these referendum principles, results in a 2.6% real-terms average annual increase in core spending power over the spending review period.
This multi-year settlement will better align funding with deprivation and need, as part of a simplified funding landscape that is fit for the future. By 2028-29, we expect that the 10% most deprived authorities will see a significant increase in their core spending power per head, compared to the least deprived. People living in the places that suffered most from austerity will finally see their areas turned around.
We know there is more to do. There are no quick fixes, and it will take time to deliver the change this country needs. Our reforms will get money to where it is needed most, but we cannot undo a decade of damage overnight. We know some councils will ask for additional help, and we will continue to have a framework in place to support those in the most difficult positions. We made important strides in our first year and, in partnership with local government, we will rebuild a state people can rely on.
More detail on these proposals will be provided in the local government finance policy statement and fair funding review 2.0 response, to be published on gov.uk later today. Proposals for the 2026-27 settlement will be subject to the usual consultation process at the provisional local government finance settlement. This written ministerial statement covers England only. The policy statement will be deposited in the House Libraries.
[HCWS1080]
Local Government Reform: Huntingdonshire
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
Thank you, Mrs Harris; I appreciate that. It is, as ever, a pleasure to serve under your experienced and knowledgeable chairship.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) on securing a debate that is clearly of great importance to his constituency. I think that he asked me two questions, about the place of St Neots and about whether the Government intend to deliver on their defence commitments.
Unfortunately, in relation to the specifics of the proposals, I am in the invidious position of not being able to comment. The hon. Gentleman will understand that while we are in an active process of consultation I must reserve my judgment, so that I am able to take a decision based on the facts as they will be presented to me.
On defence, I am sure that, as the hon. Gentleman said, everyone in this country would expect the Government to do what we need to do to defend our country. Although that is not my specific responsibility in government, the defence of this country is a collective responsibility and I will work very closely with my colleagues in the Ministry of Defence, as I do week in and week out, to make sure that we are able to deliver on our commitments to keep this country safe.
Before I turn to the topics in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, I will briefly set out why we are reorganising local government and why that process is important to the Government’s overall objectives. Nearly a third of our population—about 20 million people—live in areas with two-tier local government services and functions split across county and district councils. That slows down economic decision making and delivery and leads to fragmentation in our public services.
Even in the short months in which I have been the Minister for Local Government, I have heard that from councillors directly. It is confusing—who does what and who is responsible? In our Department, several Ministers were leaders of councils themselves and so have practical experience of the issue. Through local government reorganisation, we are simplifying local government and establishing single-tier unitary councils everywhere.
We need stronger local councils equipped to make economic growth more likely, improve public services and empower communities. That is the point of reorganisation: so that we have councils that match the real economic footprint of our cities and towns, rather than, in some cases, lines drawn on a map 50 years ago. Councils need to play a much clearer and stronger role in building our economy and making sure that our national growth story includes everyone, everywhere. Local government reorganisation can help to do that. With one council in charge of each area, we will see quicker decisions to grow our towns and cities and connect people to opportunity. Reorganisation will speed up house building, get vital infrastructure projects moving and attract new investment.
There are also social and public services benefits. Bringing services such as housing, public health and social care under one roof means that one council can see the full picture, spot problems early and, for example, support a family in need of housing and then support the children to stay in school. That often does not happen at the moment—we see families who are dealing with the worst type of homelessness being passed from pillar to post.
We have already announced two new unitary councils in Surrey, investing in residents’ futures and putting local authorities there on a sustainable footing. I am also pleased to announce further aspects of the process. This is just the start: we are working with a further 14 areas across England that will benefit from this once-in-a-generation reform, with their proposals due by 28 November.
Ben Obese-Jecty
On putting councils on a good financial footing, there are huge concerns across Cambridgeshire about being partnered with Peterborough city council, because its finances are in such a grave state. Peterborough is already a unitary council. Would the Government consider excluding it from the rest of Cambridgeshire, working out how to do the unitary authorities elsewhere and then taking action at a national level to shore up Peterborough’s dire financial position?
Alison McGovern
The hon. Gentleman rightly raises the fragility of council finances. Everything that we are doing needs to put local authorities on a much firmer footing. The past 15 years have seen town hall finances deteriorate. We are taking steps through the local government finance settlement to address that. More information on that will come shortly. Further local government reorganisation is an opportunity to streamline public services and get councils on a firmer footing.
Unfortunately, I am in the invidious position of not being able to comment on the hon. Gentleman’s specific point, but I assure him that all the actions we are taking in relation to local government change have finance stability at their heart. He mentioned the work of CIPFA; I take the opportunity to pay tribute to CIPFA and the excellent work it does in helping to support councils. We will take more steps shortly to get councils on a firmer footing.
I turn to the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. Local authorities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have been developing proposals for unitary local government. That follows the commitment made in the English devolution White Paper last December and the invitation letters sent to areas last February. Decisions on the most appropriate option for each area will be judgments in the round, made with regard to the criteria he mentioned that are in the statutory guidance, the consultation responses received and all the relevant information.
The Government’s criteria for unitary local government set out that new unitary councils should enable stronger community engagement and deliver genuine opportunity for neighbourhood empowerment. We understand the importance of communities having their say on the future of their local public services, so we have been clear about the importance of councils engaging with local residents and organisations as they develop their proposals. I know that the hon. Gentleman led a Westminster Hall debate on these important issues before the summer recess and has been an active part of discussions on local government reorganisations in his area, as we have heard again today.
I am expecting to receive proposals from local authorities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by 28 November, and we anticipate that we will publicly consult on final proposals in the new year. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will appreciate that I am in a challenging position and it would not be appropriate for me to comment at this stage or provide my view on the specifics that he mentioned, because it would pre-empt future decisions that I have to make under the statutory process. There are clearly strong views locally, which were reflected in his speech. When the time comes to launch the consultation, I am sure I will not need to encourage him and his constituents to make sure that they have their say and feed in their views on the future of local government in their area. The Government want to hear them, and I have absolutely no doubt that we will.
The hon. Gentleman mentioned local councillors several times. I am sorry to say that I think being a local councillor has become a bit of a thankless task, whichever party local councillors represent, and our politics has become more fractious. I reiterate what an important job they do in providing people with preventive public services, trying to build our economy and being there for members of the public when they most need it. I will finish by saying a massive thank you to all the local councillors in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, in my constituency and right across the country. They do a fantastic job.
Question put and agreed to.
Local Government: Unitary Councils
Alison McGovern Excerpts(6 months, 3 weeks ago)
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The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
This Government are determined to streamline local government by replacing the current two-tier system with new single-tier unitary councils. This landmark reform is at the heart of our vision: councils that are close enough to care, but strong enough to reform public services, drive economic growth, and empower their communities. Empowered local government, based on unitary councils and strategic authorities, is the foundation for growth across the country—the Government’s number one mission.
Following the decision on reorganisation in Surrey, we are now looking forward to making progress across the rest of the country. With single councils in charge over sensible geographies, we will see quicker decisions to build homes, grow our towns and cities and connect people to jobs. Cities such as Colchester, Portsmouth and Norwich can drive growth at the national scale, but we need to make sure the structures around them support, rather than hinder, their ambitions.
Strong local government is also key to tackling deprivation and poverty. People living in neighbourhoods high on the index of multiple deprivation, such as in Hastings, Tendring, and Great Yarmouth, deserve responsive and joined-up services that help them reach their full potential. In place of multiple levels of confusing and inefficient structures, one council will take responsibility for what a place needs.
On 26 September, my Department received final proposals from councils in six invitation areas. I would like to thank all councils in these areas for their work in bringing these 17 proposals forward. As per the invitation, these proposals include the areas of existing neighbouring small unitary councils. Some proposals were accompanied by requests for boundary change, whereby existing districts would be split; these will require careful consideration.
Today I am launching consultations on all the below proposals, available on gov.uk, and I will deposit a copy of each in the House Library.
Two proposals from councils in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove:
Eastbourne borough council, East Sussex county council, Hastings borough council, Lewes district council and Rother district council submitted a proposal for one unitary council for the current East Sussex county footprint.
Brighton and Hove city council submitted a proposal for five unitary councils on a pan-Sussex basis.
Wealden district council did not submit a proposal.
Four proposals from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock:
Braintree district council, Essex county council and Epping Forest district council submitted a proposal for three unitary councils.
Thurrock council submitted a proposal for four unitary councils.
Rochford district council submitted a proposal for four unitary councils.
Basildon borough council, Brentwood borough council, Castle Point borough council, Chelmsford city council, Colchester city council, Harlow district council, Maldon district council, Southend-on-Sea city council, Tendring district council and Uttlesford district council submitted a proposal for five unitary councils.
Four proposals from councils in Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton:
East Hampshire district council and Hampshire county council submitted a proposal for four unitary councils.
Basingstoke and Deane borough council, New Forest district council and Test Valley borough council submitted a proposal for five unitary councils.
Winchester city council submitted a separate proposal for five unitary councils.
Eastleigh borough council, Fareham borough council, Hart district council, Havant borough council, Portsmouth city council, Rushmoor borough council and Southampton city council also submitted a proposal for five unitary councils.
All four proposals leave the Isle of Wight unchanged as an existing unitary council. Gosport borough council and Isle of Wight council did not submit a proposal.
Three proposals from councils in Norfolk:
Norfolk county council submitted a proposal for one unitary council.
South Norfolk district council submitted a proposal for two unitary councils.
Breckland district council, Broadland district council, Great Yarmouth borough council, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk borough council, North Norfolk district council, and Norwich city council submitted a proposal for three unitary councils.
Two proposals from councils in Suffolk:
Suffolk county council submitted a proposal for one unitary council.
Babergh district council, East Suffolk district council, Ipswich borough council, Mid Suffolk district council and West Suffolk district council submitted a proposal for three unitary councils.
Two proposals from councils in West Sussex:
West Sussex county council submitted a proposal for one unitary council.
Arun district council, Adur district council, Chichester district council, Crawley borough council, Horsham district council, Mid-Sussex district council and Worthing borough council submitted a proposal for two unitary councils.
The consultations will run for seven weeks until 11 January 2026. The consultation documents are available on the Department’s online platform “Citizen Space" and those responding to the consultations can use this online platform, email or post to submit their views. I welcome views from all councils in these areas as well as neighbouring councils, and specified public service providers, including health providers and the police, and other business, voluntary and community sector and educational bodies. Where boundary changes are requested, we consider it appropriate to consult the local government boundary commission for England.
I would also welcome responses from any other persons or organisations interested in these proposals, including residents, town and parish councils, businesses and the voluntary and community sector.
Once the consultations have concluded, the Government will assess the proposals against the criteria in the invitation and decide, subject to parliamentary approval, which, if any, proposals are to be implemented, with or without modification. In taking these decisions, we will have regard to all the representations received, including those from the consultation, and all other relevant information available.
I will continue to update the House as further milestones are reached in the delivery of this landmark reform.
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Standards for Local Authorities in England
Alison McGovern Excerpts(7 months ago)
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The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)
This Government are committed to greater devolution and determined to fix the foundations of local government and build a better future for local politics.
We want local and regional government in England to attract and retain the best possible talent, and for county, town and city halls across the country to promote fair and reasonable democratic discourse, without slipping into cultures which are toxic and intimidating.
In December 2024 the Government launched a consultation seeking views on proposals to strengthen the standards and conduct framework for local authorities in England.
This Government response, informed by the consultation and wider sector engagement, sets out our ambition to introduce a clearer and consistently applied conduct system that will help local elected Members to hold themselves and their colleagues to account in meeting the high standards and conduct their roles demand and the public have a right to expect.
This Government will carry out wholesale reform of the current standards regime, tackling head-on widespread concerns around the inconsistent use of rules on behaviour and the lack of effective sanctions for those who breach their codes of conduct, undermining people’s confidence in local government.
The reforms aim to ensure misconduct is dealt with swiftly and fairly across the country in every type and tier of local government—from the smallest town or parish council to the largest regional mayoral authority. We want to ensure that local government is empowered, fully accountable and deserving of people’s trust.
Councillors and mayors who repeatedly break the rules or commit serious misconduct will face tougher sanctions under proposals published today to clean up local politics and restore public confidence.
The Government response is being published on gov.uk today and will be deposited in the Library of the House.
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