Rough Sleeping and Good Growth Funds

Allison Gardner Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Florence Eshalomi]

What we are seeing with this new focus on homelessness is support, from the very top: support from the Prime Minister, who made it his mission, on the steps of Downing Street, to ensure that this country would not continue to watch people sleeping rough. That support is now being backed by crucial funding to help local areas to design schemes to ensure that people come off the streets. However, we are not stopping there, because it is not just about the street and a bed for Christmas; it is about long-term support. The hon. Gentleman referred to what failed, and why homelessness went up. He will find that more people will gravitate towards an area where a project or initiative has been successful. We are trying to ensure that there is support across the country, so that every area is helped to deal with rough sleeping and homelessness.

[Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

This year I have convened a taskforce in Stoke-on-Trent with key service providers and people with lived experience to tackle the issue of homelessness for those who experience substance misuse. A particular challenge is enabling them to receive mental health treatment concurrently with drug and alcohol treatment. Does the Minister agree that it is absolutely vital for those providing mental health support to work concurrently with all other service providers to provide a sustainable pathway to recovery for this vulnerable group, and will she take me up on my offer, visit my constituency, and perhaps attend a taskforce meeting?

[Florence Eshalomi]

My hon. Friend has asked me to visit her constituency and, diary permitting, I will look at that. She is right: many people who are sleeping rough and experiencing homelessness face a number of complex challenges and needs which, in some cases, fall to very stretched mental health provision and substance misuse services across the country. We want to continue that vital partnership work with colleagues and the NHS to ensure that those local services are helping people by providing the right pathway of support before they are housed.