Housing for the Homeless Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Lord McNicol of West Kilbride
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Housing for the Homeless
Lord McNicol of West Kilbride Excerpts(4 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Lab)
My Lords, if we thought rough sleeping was bad before Covid-19, we can rest assured that it will be a lot worse when we soon enter one of the toughest economic downturns our country has seen. However, it does not need to be. Both this Government and the last Labour Government have shown that great strides can be made when you put your mind to it. This Government have shown that in their response to dealing with Covid-19, and the last Labour Government did so by delivering on the planned rough sleepers initiative.
As the noble Lord, Lord Bird, said in his intro, we need a plan for when we come out of this. May I push the Minister to go into detail on that plan? My noble friend Lady Kennedy touched on the task force’s membership. When looking at the membership, I encourage the Minister to look to involve and include those representatives from local government who have a huge amount of experience in dealing with these issues.