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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department has issued to local authorities and community groups on tackling rough sleeping.

The Government has increased spending to prevent and tackle rough sleeping and homelessness making over £500 million available, giving councils the funding and tools needed to take action against rough sleeping locally.

There are a range of initiatives and projects in place to help rough sleepers, prevent single homelessness and to help those who have been homeless find and sustain accommodation.

Thousands of vulnerable people who have slept rough or were at risk of doing so have received the help they need through No Second Night Out schemes and Streetlink – the digital and national telephone service to enable the public to connect rough sleepers quickly to the local services available so they get the help they need to get them off the streets.

We have supported the roll-out of No Second Night Out nationally through the £20 million Homelessness Transition Fund for the voluntary sector ensuring rough sleepers do not spend more than one night on the street. In 20 key rough sleeping areas outside London homelessness charities reported that 67% of rough sleepers were helped off the streets after a single night.

We have launched an £8 million Help for Single Homeless Fund for local authorities which will improve council services for single people facing the prospect of homelessness by encouraging better partnership working between councils and other local partners.

We are also helping single homeless people to find and sustain accommodation in the private rented sector through our £13 million funding to Crisis. By 2016 we expect the Crisis scheme to have helped 10,000 single homeless people.