Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rushanara Ali]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. Our priority is to make sure that we tackle the root causes of the housing shortage and homelessness. That is why we are building 1.5 million homes and investing record amounts in housing and tackling homelessness, including £1 billion for the next year.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

Since the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 was passed, local authorities have prevented 1.4 million people from becoming homeless. However, there is still evidence of local authorities refusing to plan to prevent people becoming homeless. Will the Minister take up the private Member’s Bill that I championed the other week, and that was given an unopposed Second Reading, so that we put pressure on the people who should provide the housing, and no one in this country is forced to sleep rough?

[Rushanara Ali]

The hon. Gentleman has done a great deal of cross-party work in support of housing. We have a consultation in place. I am pleased to say that I have met him on a couple of occasions, and he will be aware that we are working hard and at pace to tackle the underlying challenges. There are 164,000 children in temporary accommodation, and rough sleeping has gone up by 164% since 2010. We are determined to take action to deal with the challenges, but that will require concerted work. The Deputy Prime Minister is leading the interdepartmental taskforce on homelessness. I look forward to continuing to work with the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman).