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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will meet with representatives of local authorities to discuss funding for shelters for homeless people (a) in the UK and (b) Southport.

Our expert Rough Sleeper Initiative and Homelessness Advice and Support Team, as well as MHCLG officials, meet with local authority representatives throughout the UK on a regular basis to support their work with rough sleeping and homeless people in their area.

Sefton Local Authority which includes the town of Southport will be receiving £124,582 in funding through the Rough Sleeping Initiative to support people off the streets in 2019/20. This will be used to support homeless people with complex needs and a clinical outreach post.

The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. In its first year, the Rough Sleeping Initiative provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff. In all, the Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.