Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities to provide temporary accommodation to families in (a) Stoke-on-Trent North and (b) Kidsgrove in a way that does not have a detrimental impact on (i) local people and (ii) town centres.

Homelessness levels are far too high, and this can have a devastating impact on those affected. The Government is taking action by setting up a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) which the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) will chair, bringing together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness, including youth homelessness.

As announced at the Budget on 30 October, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to this year (2024/25). The increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping and brings the total spend to nearly £1 billion in 2025/26. We also confirmed a further £450 million for councils through the Local Authority Housing Fund enabling councils to obtain better quality temporary accommodation for homeless families.

More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including: delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament; and abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.