Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress his Department has made on ending rough sleeping; and whether it remains his policy to end rough sleeping this year.
The Government is committed to ending rough sleeping and we have made good progress towards this goal. Despite the challenging context, the long-term rough sleeping trends show the progress that government and local partners have made. Rough sleeping levels are 18% lower in 2023 compared to the peak in 2017 and 9% lower than they were in 2019 before the pandemic.
We are providing an unprecedented £2.4 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, including over £547 million via the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) 2022-25. This includes a total additional investment of over £47 million announced in September 2023 and January 2024 for the RSI, and a further investment of up to £10 million through Rough Sleeping Winter Pressures funding, which is targeted at areas with the highest pressures.