Early Release Prisoners: Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping

Lord Bishop of Newcastle Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Newcastle]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for bringing this topic to our attention today, and I pay tribute to him for his tireless work in this area of concern. It is an honour to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley.

The north-east, where I live, offers both encouragement and challenge to the theme of our debate today. HMP Northumberland, Northumberland County Council, the probation services and voluntary organisations, which we have already heard quite a lot about, have developed strong partnerships to improve resettlement. Those partnerships deserve recognition, but they also raise the important question of how we are assessing their effectiveness. Success should not be measured simply by whether a referral has been made or a duty fulfilled. It should be measured by outcomes. As other noble Lords have asked, did someone leave prison with suitable accommodation? Were they still housed weeks and months later? Did they avoid rough sleeping? Were they able to access healthcare, treatment for substance misuse and, where appropriate, employment and training? Those outcomes are closely connected. Homelessness rarely exists in isolation. It intersects with poor mental health, addiction, unemployment and social exclusion.

Nacro’s recent report, Reducing Deaths Among Prison Leavers, reminds us of the human consequences. It found that people released from prison in the north-east are around six times more likely to die from a drug-related cause within two weeks of release than those released in the east of England. While the report makes clear that this disparity cannot be explained by homelessness alone, it underlines the importance of viewing housing as part of a wider resettlement pathway, rather than as a stand-alone intervention.

There is also a strong economic case for getting this right. Preventing homelessness at the point of release reduces pressure on emergency accommodation, health services, the criminal justice system and local authorities. Stable housing provides the foundation on which recovery, family relationships and employment can be rebuilt. Without that foundation, the risk of reoffending and repeated crisis raises significantly. Partnership working should therefore be viewed not simply as good practice but as a sound investment in safer communities, better public services and better outcomes for individuals seeking to make a fresh start after prison. Early release makes this even more challenging because it compresses the time available to co-ordinate housing, healthcare and community support. That makes effective partnership working more important than ever. Organisations such as the Oswin Project in Northumberland, with its excellent café in Newcastle Cathedral, show what can be achieved when employment support, mentoring and rehabilitation are integrated with housing. But these initiatives depend on timely planning and sustained collaboration.

Nacro has called for a clear plan to halve by 2029 the proportion of people leaving prison who are homeless. I hope the Government will not only pursue that ambition but set out how success will be measured. What indicators will be used to assess whether partnership working is preventing homelessness and rough sleeping, and how will outcomes be monitored for those released early? How will examples of effective practice, such as those emerging in the north-east, be identified, evaluated and shared more widely?

Ultimately, the measure of success is not whether agencies work together but whether people leaving prison are able to rebuild stable, healthy and productive lives. Can the Minister ensure that any measures around the effectiveness of partnership working include regional outcomes, so that we can understand both what is working in areas such as the north-east and where further support might be needed?