Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what financial and other support he is providing to local authorities to enable them to provide self-contained accommodation to rough sleepers during winter 2020-21.

On 17 September MHCLG announced that £91.5 million had been allocated to 274 councils in England for the short-term funding aspect of the Next Steps Accommodation Programme, to help vulnerable people housed during the pandemic, and throughout the winter period.

On 13 October, we announced a further £10 million Cold Weather Fund for local areas to bring forward self-contained and COVID secure accommodation this winter, and £2 million funding for the faith, communities and voluntary sector to make available self-contained and COVID secure accommodation. Alongside this, comprehensive guidance to the sector, produced with input from Public Health England, Housing Justice and Homeless Link, has been published to help them open shelters more safely in situations where this decision needs to be taken, as a last resort and where not doing so would endanger lives.

This is on top of Government’s commitment to support up to 6,000 rough sleepers into longer term accommodation, with 3,300 units of this accommodation becoming available in?2020/2021.?Homes England, in partnership with MHCLG, have pledged to work?hand-in-hand?with leading Housing Associations and local authorities to deliver this.

Taken together,?the overall?amount Government is spending on rough sleeping and homelessness this year?is over?£700 million.