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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of regional variation in levels of homelessness; and if he will make a statement.

Homelessness acceptances remain less than half the 2003-4 peak, but one person without a home is still one too many. That is why we have protected £315 million for local authority homelessness prevention funding, and secured £149 million central government funding in this Parliament.

We have a strong homelessness safety net, but we want to go further by putting prevention at the heart of our approach to tackling homelessness. That is why we are supporting Bob Blackman MP’s Private Members’ Bill. The Homelessness Reduction Bill will significantly reform England’s homelessness legislation, ensuring that more people get the help they need earlier to prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.

Homelessness statistics are recorded at a local authority level. Statistics on homelessness acceptances for each local authority in England and the total figures for areas can be found in live table 784: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.