Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Gould of Potternewton on 2016-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have undertaken any analysis to determine why there has been an increase in the number of homeless people; and, if so, what assessment they have made of the impact of the Homeless Prevention Fund provided to local authorities and increased funding of programmes for the homeless.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

This Government has always been clear that we are committed to supporting the most vulnerable people in our society. One person without a home is one too many. That is why we have protected the homelessness prevention funding local authorities receive, totalling £315 million by 2019-20. This builds on our commitment to increase central government funding for homelessness programmes to £139 million over the next four years.

We are working with homelessness organisations to consider other options, including legislation, to ensure those at risk of homelessness get earlier and more effective support. Through a series of roundtables we have already started conversations to help shape and inform our future approach to tackling homelessness and deciding our investment priorities.

During the last Parliament the Homelessness Prevention Grant and our investment in homelessness programmes helped prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless.

We will continue to use the information provided to us by local authorities to assess the causes of homelessness and the extent of homelessness prevention and relief activity, in order to help shape future policy and investment.