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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the criteria are for the Government's decisions on how much funding for help to rent projects to allocate to local authorities; and whether the Government plans to increase such funding.

The Government gave nearly £14 million from 2010 to 2016 to develop a programme to help single homeless people access private rented sector accommodation, as part of its work to prevent and tackle homelessness. Our £50 million Homelessness Prevention Programme is now funding 84 projects in 225 local authorities, following an open competition last autumn, details of which can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/584760/Homelessness_Prevention_Programme_-_Successful_bids.pdf

Some of these projects will help single homeless people access and sustain housing in the private rental sector. For example, Bristol City Council are setting up a team to do early intervention work with households in the private rented sector who are at risk of homelessness to prevent a crisis.

We are also going further and supporting the honourable member for Harrow East’s Homelessness Reduction Bill, which will significantly reform the support people receive to prevent homelessness. The Government has committed to provide £61 million to local authorities to meet the costs of the Bill.