Homelessness is a tragedy for all those it affects and is one of the most visible signs of the nation’s housing crisis. Local government wants to end homelessness by preventing it happening in the first place. We support the Government’s ambition to halve rough sleeping.
Key messages
- Councils are providing temporary housing for over 70,000 households, including over 120,000 children. The net cost has tripled in the last three years. In this time, on average, councils have been housing an extra secondary school’s worth of homeless children every month.
- Local government fully supports the Homelessness Reduction Act, and we want to make a success of the new legislation. We are, however, concerned that the new burdens funding for councils is likely to fall short of the total costs of delivering the duties in the Act.
- We welcome the £30 million fund announced by the Government to help councils tackle rough sleeping. Beyond this investment, we look forward to the launch of the Government’s strategy and investment plans this summer. A longer-term approach to eradicating rough sleeping is needed.
- We are pleased that the Government has responded to our calls to extend the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate cap for private housing. The 3 per cent rise in the Targeted Affordability Fund (TAF) is good news, but we would like the Government to go further and lift the cap entirely.
- If homes are to be more secure, councils must be allowed to invest in affordable housing. To reach the national target of 300,000 homes a year, the Government should listen to the call of the cross-party Treasury Committee and remove the cap on councils’ borrowing to build homes.
Download the full briefing
Debate on street homelessness, House of Commons, 24 April 2018