Sleeping Rough

(asked on 14th January 2016) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of levels of rough sleeping in town centres on the use of town centres by the general public.


Answered by
Marcus Jones Portrait
Marcus Jones
Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
This question was answered on 19th January 2016

The Government remains committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. But one person without a home is one too many, which is why we are maintaining homelessness funding over this Spending Review period, building on our significant investment since 2010. We will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We have also protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

It is for local authorities to determine what homelessness services are required to best meet the needs of their local area, including provision of suitable accommodation. More rough sleepers are being found and helped quicker thanks to our investment in StreetLink, which gives the public a means to act when they see someone sleeping rough. Since the launch of StreetLink in December 2012, over 16,000 rough sleepers have been found and connected with local services so that they can get the help that they need to get them off the streets. We are committed to do more to improve services for homeless people with complex needs. Building on London’s approach of using social investment to improve outcomes for rough sleepers, we will be setting up a new Social Impact BondFund to help the most complex and entrenched rough sleepers.


Reticulating Splines