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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to reduce homelessness in (a) Slough and (b) England.

The Government is committed to tackling homelessness, which is why it is spending over £700 million this year alone. This includes the Flexible Homelessness Support Grant of £200m and the £63 million Homelessness Reduction Grant which enable local authorities to do more to prevent and relieve homelessness in their areas. Slough received a total of £820,101 from these specific funding streams. As a result of the Homelessness Reduction Act, councils now have a duty to prevent homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation means people are getting help?and ensures no family is without a roof over their head.

Next year, the Government will be spending over £750 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, further demonstrating the Government’s commitment to end rough sleeping and fully enforce the Homelessness Reduction Act.

The latest homelessness data for April June 2020, including temporary accommodation numbers and the number of duties owed under the Homelessness Reduction Act can be found on the gov.uk website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.