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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support his Department is providing to homeless people during the period of covid-19 lockdown restrictions announced in January 2021.

Given the new variant of COVID-19, and the current national lockdown, we are redoubling our efforts to ensure that people who sleep rough are kept as safe as possible and that we do everything we can to protect the NHS. This is backed by £10 million to protect rough sleepers and ensure their wider health needs are addressed.

We have asked all local authorities to ensure that even more rough sleepers are safely accommodated, and will be asking that this opportunity is actively used to make sure that all rough sleepers are registered with a GP where they are not already and are factored into local area vaccination plans, in line with JCVI prioritisation for COVID-19 vaccinations.

We have taken unprecedented steps to protect rough sleepers during the pandemic. This work has not stopped, and through Everyone In, by November we had supported around 33,000 people with nearly 10,000 in emergency accommodation and over 23,000 already moved on into longer-term accommodation.

This additional support builds on the package of winter support announced last year. This includes a £10 million Cold Weather Fund for all local authorities to bring forward COVID-secure accommodation this winter and to keep vulnerable people safe. This sits alongside the Protect programme, which provides targeted support to local authorities with higher numbers of rough sleepers to meet the specific challenges they face. Through the Next Steps Accommodation Programme we have provided support to ensure that as few people as possible return to the streets. This includes bringing forward 3,300 new homes this year for rough sleepers, backed by £150 million, leaving a national legacy of this Government’s support. £91.5 million was also allocated to 274 councils in England to provide immediate accommodation and support to vulnerable people during the pandemic.

The Government has also established an unprecedented package of support to protect renters. This includes legislating through the Coronavirus Act 2020 to delay when landlords can evict tenants, a 6 month stay on possession proceedings in court, a pause on bailiffs enforcing eviction notices, and a range of financial support to enable renters to continue paying their living costs, including rental payments.

In total, we are spending over £700 million in 2020/21 on homelessness and rough sleeping. We will also be spending over £750 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping next year, further demonstrating the Government’s commitment to end rough sleeping this Parliament and fully enforce the Homelessness Reduction Act.