Will Quince
Main Page: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)
12. What steps his Department is taking to help rough sleepers and homeless people.
Will Quince (Colchester) (Con)
15. What steps his Department is taking to help rough sleepers and homeless people.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Marcus Jones)
One person without a home is one too many. That is why we have increased central funding for homelessness to £139 million over this Parliament and protected council homelessness prevention funding totalling £315 million by 2020.
Mr Jones
We are absolutely supportive of the approach taken by No Second Night Out, which my Department rolled out nationally in the previous Parliament. I absolutely want to build on the success of this initiative. Our new £10 million rough sleeping fund will scale up ways in which we can prevent and reduce rough sleeping. It will also go further, building on the successful approaches of No Second Night Out—and indeed “no first night out”, because it is best if we can prevent people from being on the streets at all. Details of this programme and the bidding round will be announced shortly.
Will Quince
Beacon House is a wonderful charity supporting the homeless in Colchester. What further support can the Minister give to local charities like Beacon House up and down this country in their work to tackle homelessness?
Mr Jones
My hon. Friend makes a good point. Charities play an extremely valuable part in the fight against homelessness. I know that he has taken part in a sleep-out to raise money for Beacon House, which this Department has also supported financially. I chair a round table with chief executives of a number of these vital homelessness charities to discuss what more can be done. The information that we have gathered at these meetings feeds directly into the ministerial working group, which I also chair.