Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of people relying on temporary accommodation since 2010.

Mr Marcus Jones

Provision of temporary accommodation ensures that homeless households in priority need are not left without a roof over their heads.

We have provided more than £500 million since 2010 to support local authorities and the voluntary and community sector to tackle and prevent homelessness. This has helped prevent homelessness for 935,000 households.

Households leaving temporary accommodation now spend, on average, 7 months less in temporary accommodation than they did in 2010.

The numbers of households in temporary accommodation remain well below their peak, when they hit 101,000 in 2004.