Ruth Cadbury
Main Page: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)
9. What assessment he has made of the effect of Government policy on levels of homelessness since 2010.
Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Lab)
10. What assessment he has made of the effect of Government policy on levels of homelessness since 2010.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Marcus Jones)
Since 2010, we have enabled local authorities to help prevent or relieve over 1 million cases of homelessness, but one person without a home is one too many. So we have increased central funding for homelessness to £139 million over the next four years and protected homelessness prevention funding to councils amounting to £315 million by 2020.
Ruth Cadbury
I would be grateful if the Minister answered the question and, in particular, if he said why we have had a doubling of street homelessness since 2010 and why there are currently 370,000 households with no permanent home. Does he not see that these are a direct result of a series of Government policies introduced since 2010, and they are set to get worse—the removal of funding for new social rent housing, the bedroom tax, housing benefit caps, a rise in sanctions, the cut in funding for housing benefit for supported housing and the sale of 100,000 council homes?
Mr Speaker
I would suggest that the hon. Lady seek an Adjournment debate on the subject, but I realise now that she has just had it.