Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of removing the local connection test for the Armed Forces community when applying for social housing on the prevalence of veteran rough sleeping.

The Government recognises the dedication and sacrifices made by members of the Armed Forces and we are committed to ensuring that they are provided with all the support they need to adjust successfully back into civilian life.

In line with the Armed Forces Covenant, in 2012 we introduced regulations which ensure that serving personnel and those within 5 years of having left the forces cannot be disqualified from social housing because of a local connection or residency requirement. The data in England shows that the percentage of serving personnel and those leaving the forces within five years who were allocated social housing in a local authority area where they had not previously lived remained higher in 2019-20 than the percentage among the non-veteran population.

Veteran homelessness is low. Data shows that for the year 2020-21, 1,730 veterans were owed a homelessness duty out of the 268,560 total households who were homeless or at risk of homelessness.