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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that local councils provide homelessness assistance to children to prevent them being forced to sleep rough.

I wrote to council leaders and chief executives on Wednesday 25 February setting out local authorities’ legal duties to homeless families with children under the Housing Act 1996 and Children Act 1989. This letter made it clear that a child should never be sleeping rough. A household with a child has priority need for the purposes of the Housing Act 1996. Eligible homeless households with children must be accommodated under section 188, and in some circumstances under section 190(2) or 193 of the Act.