Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress his Department has made on ending rough sleeping; and whether it remains his policy to end rough sleeping this year.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The Government is committed to ending rough sleeping and we have made good progress towards this goal. Despite the challenging context, the long-term rough sleeping trends show the progress that government and local partners have made. Rough sleeping levels are 18% lower in 2023 compared to the peak in 2017 and 9% lower than they were in 2019 before the pandemic.
We are providing an unprecedented £2.4 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, including over £547 million via the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) 2022-25. This includes a total additional investment of over £47 million announced in September 2023 and January 2024 for the RSI, and a further investment of up to £10 million through Rough Sleeping Winter Pressures funding, which is targeted at areas with the highest pressures.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authority contracts are (a) awarded following fair processes and (b) represent value for money.
Answered by Lee Rowley
Local authorities are independent statutory bodies accountable to their electorate.
As public bodies, councils are subject to Procurement Contract Regulations (2015), which, subject to the will of Parliament, will be replaced as set out in the Transforming Public Procurement Bill.
The overarching aim of procurement regulations is to ensure open, fair, proportionate and transparent processes are adhered to. At the heart of procurement regulations is achieving value for money. Local authorities contract within these legal frameworks and are themselves responsible for evaluating and delivering value for money on behalf of their local residents.