Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to reduce child homelessness.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has increased funding for homelessness services by £316 million to a total of £1 billion in 2025/26. This includes a recent £84 million top up which included £10.9 million funding to support families and children in temporary accommodation, funding services to improve their quality of life whilst they are homeless.
We are developing a homelessness strategy to deliver the long-term solutions that we need to get back on track to ending homelessness. Our strategy will put prevention at its core, to reduce the number of children who experience homelessness, and will consider the needs of all groups who are at risk of and experience homelessness, including young people. We are taking a cross-government approach, including working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions as they develop the Child Poverty Strategy.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help tackle homelessness in Newton Abbot constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has increased funding for homelessness services by £316 million to a total of over £1 billion in 2025/26. Funding allocations are published on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish a breakdown of how each local authority spends its share of the new £84 million homelessness support funding announced in the news release entitled £84 million injection to tackle homelessness, published on 9 October 2025.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are best placed to understand local need. Our funding provides local authorities with the flexibility to determine the most effective services to support vulnerable individuals in their areas.
You can find local authority level allocations of the £84 million announced on 10 October here:
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Independent - Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, who the (a) members are and (b) chair is of the Inter-ministerial Group on Rough Sleeping and Homelessness.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Inter-Ministerial Group includes ministers from across government and is focused on developing a long-term strategy to get us back on track to ending homelessness. This includes ministers from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Home Office, Department for Education, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Health and Social Care, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Justice, Cabinet Office, and His Majesty’s Treasury.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government or his delegate chairs the Inter-Ministerial Group on homelessness.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made on the potential impact of extending the Armed Forces Covenant Duty across his Departmental responsibilities.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are already bound by this duty when they discharge their housing and homelessness duties, and independent Returning Officers and Electoral Registration Officers support service personnel and their families to register and to vote. Extending the legal duty of the Armed Forces Covenant to MHCLG would therefore align with my department’s existing policies.
A detailed assessment can be found in our response to the Defence Committee in April, available at: committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/142062/default/.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to announce the prospectus for round 4 of the local authority housing fund.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We aim to publish the prospectus for Round 4 by the end of this year, to allow local authorities sufficient time to prepare for delivery to begin in April 2026.
The £950 million fourth round of Local Authority Housing Fund will primarily support local authorities in England to increase the supply of better-quality temporary accommodation and drive down the use of Bed and Breakfasts for families with children.
It will also provide safe and suitable housing for those on the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP), to fulfil the UK’s humanitarian duties to assist those who assisted British efforts in Afghanistan and are at risk of homelessness.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) members of the travelling community, (b) sex workers, (c) asylum seekers, (d) victims of modern slavery, (e) people from ethnic minority backgrounds, (f) people experiencing homelessness, (g) people affected by drug or alcohol addiction and (h) people in contact with the justice system participated in engagement activities in relation to the 10 Year Health Plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To develop the 10-Year Health Plan, we had the biggest ever conversation on the future of the National Health Service with over a quarter of a million contributions from the public, staff, and partners including charities and patient groups.
A detailed 10-Year Health Plan engagement report will be published in due course, which will set out the methodology and results of this engagement exercise.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the level of homelessness in (a) Lancashire and (b) Fylde constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected and we must address this and deliver long term solutions.
The Government is looking at these issues carefully and is developing a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness.
The Government publishes homelessness statistics by local authority in England on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support veterans to (a) secure employment, (b) access appropriate housing and (c) access mental health support following medical discharge.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This Government is fully committed to ensuring that all veterans, including those undergoing medical discharge, have easy access to support when and where it is needed. Personnel who are medically discharged are automatically referred to Defence Transition Service (DTS) or Veteran Welfare Service (VWS). Service leavers, veterans, and their families can access support, help and information with issues that may endure beyond discharge irrespective of their reason for discharge. DTS/VWS clients are supported according to their needs and preferences, this may be simple transitional needs or enduring healthcare support for more complex challenges including PTSD.
For employment support, the Ministry of Defence-hosted Career Transition Partnership (CTP) is the initial point of employment support provision for veterans for up to two years before and after leaving military service. For individuals facing significant barriers to employment due to medical conditions, CTP provides tailored support through the CTP Assist programme. This initiative offers bespoke, intensive assistance to help those with additional needs successfully transition into civilian employment. Op ASCEND is available two years after discharge and connects veterans and their families with employers and supports them into sustainable careers in strategic sectors.
For housing support, Op FORTITUDE is the support referral pathway to connect veterans at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness and the Reducing Veteran Homelessness programme funds housing organisations to deliver wraparound care and support services to veterans.
Structured Mental Health Assessments conducted by Defence GPs are part of the medical discharge process, and where personnel leaving the Armed Forces have an enduring need for mental healthcare, Defence Medical Services work in partnership with the NHS to ensure continuation of care. Personnel who have been assessed and diagnosed with a mental health need are able to access Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMH) for up to six months after discharge to provide continuity of care during the transition period until appropriate handover to other services can be completed as required.
Veterans can also access specialist mental and physical health support through Ops COURAGE and RESTORE, which provide a broad range of specialist mental health, physical and wellbeing care services to veterans in England, with similar services available in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the social security system provides (a) supportive and (b) compassionate services for people experiencing (i) poverty and (ii) hardship.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government believes that the best way of helping people experiencing poverty and hardship is through a system that supports them into good work wherever possible. Through the proposals in our Get Britain Working White Paper we will deliver the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation. This will include reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new Jobs and Careers Service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access good, meaningful work, and support them to progress in work including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. Our new service will provide personalised support and move away from the one size fits all approach that Jobcentre Plus has today. We will also remove the stigma of going to a Jobcentre, ensuring it is somewhere that people go to receive support, rather than to feel penalised for receiving benefits. At Autumn Budget, we secured £55m to support the first steps to build, test, and trial the new service for 2025/26.
Universal Credit supports people on a low income in or out of work and is claimed by more than 7.5 million people, and we are committed to reviewing it to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty. We are fulfilling this commitment trough specific work on many of Universal Credit's core elements, and the extensive work taking place through the child poverty taskforce, our health and disability reforms and our employment reforms We have already shown our ambition with the changes made to the Fair Repayment Rate, giving 1.2m households an average of £420 per year. In addition, around 4 million households will benefit from the increase in the Universal Credit Standard Allowance from April 2026, the biggest permanent boost to out-of-work support since 1980, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. This increase is estimated to be worth £725 annually by 2029/30 in cash terms - £250 annually above inflation for a single household aged 25 or over.
To further support struggling households, we are providing £742 million to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) in England until 31 March 2026, enabling local authorities to continue to provide vulnerable households with immediate crisis support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food. Starting from 1 April 2026, we have announced a further £842 million a year (£1 billion including Barnett consequential) to reform crisis support with the new Crisis and Resilience Fund, supporting our wider mission to reduce child poverty by reducing dependence on food parcels, preventing homelessness and making sure people can access urgent support when they need it.