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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many places in hostels in London were available for rough sleepers from 21 December 2018 to 7 January 2019; and what was their aggregate occupancy rate.

Central government does not commission hostel provision directly. This is done at the local or mayoral authority level. For this reason we do not hold data on the total number of hostel spaces available in London, nor their occupancy rate.

However, the government does commission Homeless Link to conduct annual reviews on single homelessness support, which includes the number of hostel bed spaces (and void bed spaces) in the capital, and across the country. The latest of which is for 2017, and can be found (attached) at: https://www.homeless.org.uk/facts/our-research/annual-review-of-single-homelessness-support-in-england.

This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.