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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support individuals and families in temporary accommodation to move into long-term housing.

This government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period to April 2020. In 2020/2021 we are providing a further £422 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. This marks a £54 million increase in funding from the previous year. This highlights the government’s continued focus on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, and we will announce how this additional funding has been allocated in due course.

Time spent in temporary accommodation (TA) means people are getting help and it ensures no family is without a roof over their head.

In the Rough Sleeping Strategy, the government committed to tackling wider homelessness issues, including the numbers of families in TA and poor-quality accommodation.

In 2011, the law was changed to allow councils to place families in decent and affordable private rented homes. This now means homeless households should not have to wait as long for settled accommodation.

The government has targeted funding streams focused on reducing the number of households in TA. For example the £20 million Private Rented Sector Access Fund is funding schemes aimed at supporting over 8,000 people who are or at risk of homelessness into sustainable private rented sector accommodation.