Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many extra beds have been made available since 23 March 2020 specifically to victims of domestic abuse.
The MHCLG £10 million Domestic Abuse COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund was allocated to 147 successful charity bids. Grant recipients recently reported that, up to and including 30 September, they had created an additional 1046 bedspaces with a further 343 forecast to open through the winter.
In April 2020, my Department also released £16.6 million to 75 local authority-led projects across England for the delivery of support to victims of domestic abuse, and their children, within safe accommodation in 2020/21, helping up to 43,000 survivors.
Alongside these funds, MHCLG also put in place a system to enable local authorities who need additional accommodation to meet demand during the pandemic to book rooms for domestic abuse victims through Crown Commercial Services.