Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has for the future support of voluntary night shelters.

Voluntary shelters, in partnership with local authorities and the wider homelessness sector, can play an important role in supporting vulnerable homeless people, especially during the winter months. It is important that while providing homeless people with somewhere safe to stay, projects also direct people to the support they need to recover from their homelessness crisis in the long term.

But nobody should ever have to face a homelessness crisis in the first place. That is why in October, we made a £40 million Homelessness Prevention Programme available to local authorities to provide an innovative approach to tackling homelessness, with prevention at its heart. This includes two funds specifically targeted at preventing rough sleeping, and providing support to rough sleepers with the most complex needs. At Autumn Statement, we committed a further £10 million to the rough sleeping fund, bringing the total programme to £50 million.