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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to reduce rough sleeping in (a) Solihull constituency and (b) the West Midlands.

The Government is committed to ending rough sleeping and has made excellent progress on its manifesto commitment. The most recent snapshot published in February 2022 showed the number of people sleeping rough is at an 8-year low and has almost halved since 2017. By December 2021, we had also helped over 40,000 people into longer-term accommodation.

The West Midlands, as well as Solihull specifically, have successfully bid for Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) funding in 21/22. The West Midlands region was awarded £8.168 million of which Solihull was awarded £271,870. Bids for RSI funding in 2022-25 are currently being considered. West Midlands and Solihull have also been successful in bidding to deliver homes through the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme (RSAP). RSAP's key objective is to provide 6,000 move-on homes and accompanying support services to those who are rough sleeping, or who have a history of sleeping rough. The West Midlands Combined Authority is also one of three sub-regional Housing First pilot areas.