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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to meet the target to end rough-sleeping by 2027.

No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why this Government committed to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and then eliminate it altogether by 2027. Last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy, set 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. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.

As part of this, the Rough Sleeping Initiative has delivered over 1,750 new bed spaces as well as enabling the areas with the highest levels of rough sleeping to hire more than 500 new staff to focus solely on this issue. The Rapid Rehousing Pathway provides local areas with support to deliver ‘Somewhere Safe to Stay’ hubs, specialist navigators, local lettings agencies and supported lettings. Figures from the Official 2018 Rough Sleeping Snapshot show that the number of people sleeping on our streets on one night in 2018 was 2 per cent lower compared to the previous year.