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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will increase support to Redbridge Council to combat homelessness and rough sleeping in Ilford.

Redbridge has been allocated £5,280,506 for 2018-19 as part of the Flexible Homelessness Support Grant. The Rough Sleeping Initiative have also allocated Redbridge £485,250 for 2018-19 with a further £500,000 provisionally allocated for 2019-20 to tackle rough sleeping specifically. In addition, both the Move On Fund and Cold Weather Fund are open to local authorities for proposals to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough and that is why, this summer, we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.