PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Homelessness (13 February 2020)

This Government is clear that no one should be without a roof over their head. That is why we have committed to ending rough sleeping within this Parliament and to enforcing the Homelessness Reduction Act. The Government is providing £437 million over 2020/21 to tackle homelessness, which marks a £69 million increase on last year’s funding.

On 27 February we released national figures from the Official 2019 Rough Sleeping Snapshot which shows that the number of people sleeping on our streets on a single night has fallen for the second time in eight years, down 9% from the previous year. In areas funded by the Rough Sleeping Initiative, the decrease is 12 per cent from the previous year. Additionally, the number of people estimated to be sleeping rough in London has decreased by 11 per cent from the previous year - the first time in six years.

The Homelessness Reduction Act was introduced in 2018. Whilst in early stages, experimental data is indicating positive change. During this period, local authorities accepted a new prevention or relief duty to over 333,000 households. For the households where the prevention duty ended, 58 per cent had been helped to stay in their home or to secure alternative accommodation. For households actually homeless and owed the relief duty, 42 per cent had been helped to secure suitable accommodation. We are undertaking a review of the Act which will report back in March 2020.