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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that survivors of domestic abuse who become homeless as a result of that abuse are given priority for settled accommodation and not subject to the vulnerability test.

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. The Government has 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 (RSI) 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.

Ensuring that everyone has a decent, affordable, secure home is a key priority for this government. That is why we have made a commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether and why we are committed to preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.

Underpinning our work on homelessness and rough sleeping is the Homelessness Reduction Act which came into force last April. It is the most ambitious reform to homelessness legislation in decades, requiring local authorities to provide free advice and information about homelessness and the prevention of homelessness. Local authorities must ensure they tailor the advice to meet the needs of particularly vulnerable groups including those who are victims of domestic abuse.

In addition to providing free advice and information, local authorities must now carry out assessments of the housing and support needs of people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness and take reasonable steps to try and prevent or relieve their homelessness. These duties apply irrespective of priority need or intentional homelessness, and the steps the local authority and the applicant are to take must be set out in a personalised housing plan.

Our focus is to ensure that the new prevention and relief duties are being deployed to provide help to all eligible people, including single people who do not have priority need. Existing legislation provides that a person who is pregnant, has dependent children, or is vulnerable as a result of having to leave accommodation due to domestic abuse already has priority need for accommodation.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the Homelessness Reduction Act is working for all and that those fleeing violent relationships get the support they need.