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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April 2019 to Question 239278 on Sleeping Rough, when he plans to publish the impact and process evaluation of the rough sleeping initiative.

Our Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) Impact Report was published on 12 September 2019 and assesses the impact of the initiative from its launch in March 2018 until Autumn that year. The analysis reports a welcome 32 per cent reduction in numbers of rough sleepers in areas funded by the RSI, compared to what the level would have been had the initiative not been in place.

We are expecting to be able to publish the process evaluation for the RSI later this year. This will evaluate mobilisation of the first year of RSI funded interventions in individual local authority areas, identifying barriers and enablers and highlighting good practice.

The government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. It is simply unacceptable that anyone should be sleeping on the streets in modern Britain. In 2019-20, the RSI is providing £46 million to local authorities, funding an additional 750 staff and 2,600 bed spaces across the country.