Homelessness

Debate between Wera Hobhouse and Andrew Lewer

Tuesday 27th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Lewer]

That is absolutely critical and very much in the spirit of what I am outlining here.

The 94 volunteers in the night shelter have helped 104 of their guests move into settled accommodation; 12 people are currently there. Alongside that is the work of the Northampton Hope Centre, which I visited last year and was most impressed by. Some 36 volunteers as well as local faith groups, Northampton Partnership Homes, S2S, Midland Heart, the county council, SSAFA, the Army, the Hope centre and the council all participated in a borough-wide count of rough sleepers in Northampton on 10 November 2017. All the people found were over 25, and of the 11 people identified 10 were already known to the council’s street outreach team. Of those, five were refusing to engage with local services, four had been provided with accommodation but lost it, as the report indicated, through their own actions. That shows the seriousness of the challenge and some of the complexities of the cases.

The rough sleeping strategy is collaborative—a determined approach to achieve a step change in tackling the reasons why people sleep rough and help those on our streets to turn their lives around. As my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow) said, the issue is about working across all partner agencies to provide the right mix of advice, support and practical help to change each person’s life.

I believe that tackling homelessness also means building more houses. I am pleased to point out that since 2010, the Government have increased new housing numbers by 50%.

[Wera Hobhouse]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the only way of providing properly affordable homes is for local councils to build social housing?

[Andrew Lewer]

That is one part of the mix of a solution. The way forward is through a whole range of options that the Government have been using. I would never under any circumstances say, “This is the one solution to providing houses or tackling homelessness”. As my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane mentioned earlier, a partnership approach is needed. We need to use all the tools in the toolbox to get on top of the problem.