Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to bring into force the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017; and whether he plans to provide additional funding to councils to ensure the performance of their responsibilities under that Act.

The Government is committed to preventing and reducing homelessness. The timely commencement of the Homelessness Reduction Act will ensure that local authorities intervene at earlier stages to prevent homelessness. It is our intention to commence the Act in April 2018. On Monday 16 October I updated the House on a commitment I made to fund the administrative costs of the additional new duties contained within the Act in line with the new burdens doctrine. Following further discussions with local authorities, the Government is providing an additional £11.7 million in new burdens funding taking the total amount from £61million to £72.7 million.