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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what support the Government is giving to local authorities to urgently house the most vulnerable, in the context of the average waiting time for homeless applicants in Ilford wanting a two-bedroom house being eight years and eight months.

Between 2010 and 2020 the social housing waiting list fell from 1.74 million households to 1.15 million households. The waiting lists are falling because the Government has given councils the flexibility to manage them, and we have taken action to build more homes.

Temporary accommodation is an important way of ensuring no family is without a roof over their head. The Homelessness Reduction Act is also helping more people get help earlier, particularly single households who often would not have received help in the past and would have been at risk of sleeping on our streets. This year the Government is spending over £750 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

The Government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing and are investing over £12 billion in affordable housing over 5 years, the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade. This includes the new £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, which will provide up to 180,000 new homes across the country, should economic conditions allow.