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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the validity of the research undertaken by St Mungo’s and Homeless Link on the effect of recent trends in local authority funding on (a) homelessness services and (b) rough sleeping.

The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last 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.

We have now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. In its first year, our Rough Sleeping Initiative provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff. This year we have expanded the RSI with investment of £46 million for 246 areas – providing funding for an estimated 2,600 bed spaces and 750 staff.

I commend the work that St Mungo’s and Homelessness Link are taking forward in this area. Deepening our understanding of homelessness, and its causes and consequences, are key to us tackling this issue. It is for this reason, we are undertaking a review of housing-related support services in order to build a comprehensive picture of current arrangements and how support and housing fit together.