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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to provide funding for Streetlink to support a reduction in rough sleeping winter 2018.

MHCLG have provided £300,000 per year to fund StreetLink since it was established in 2012. Over this period, it has supported over 22,000 individuals into accommodation or support services.

Last year over the winter period over 100,000 new people joined StreetLink, in order to refer a rough sleeper they were concerned about. StreetLink will continue to operate this winter, assisted by funding from MHCLG, to enable the public to alert outreach teams and other support services to rough sleepers at risk on the streets.

In addition, as part of our Rough Sleeping Strategy, we announced further funding for an enhanced StreetLink service. Development of the platform will be iterative, to ensure a smooth transition and incorporate what has worked well from the existing service, as well as a variety of users’ needs.