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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people are sleeping rough.

According to the official Rough Sleeping Snapshot statistics, 3,898 people were estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in England in autumn 2023. This was 27% higher than the previous year and represented an annual increase for the second year in a row.

The Government is committed to taking action to address all forms of homelessness and will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us on back on track to ending homelessness once and for all.

We will deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next Parliament. I refer the Hon Member to the written statement made on 30 July 2024 (HCWS48), setting out our first steps on how we achieve this.