Homelessness: North West

(asked on 22nd November 2023) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to support local authorities with housing vulnerable homeless families in (a) St Helens and (b) the North West.


Answered by
Felicity Buchan Portrait
Felicity Buchan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This question was answered on 28th November 2023

We are providing over £1 billion through the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years, including a £109 million top-up this year. This funding can be used to offer financial support for people to find a new home or to work with landlords to prevent evictions, or to provide temporary accommodation where needed. St Helens Borough Council received £474,880 for 2023/24 and has been allocated £375,204 for 2024/25. The North West received £28,066,133 for 2023/24 and has been allocated £21,479,278 for 2024/25. The full list of allocations for local authorities in England is available here.

In addition, in his Autumn Statement the Chancellor announced Government is increasing the Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of market rents from April. This will mean 1.6 million low-income households will be around £800 a year better off on average in 2024-25 and will make it more affordable for families on benefits to rent properties in the private rented sector. Autumn Statement also announced additional UK-wide funding of £120 million to help councils address Ukraine and homelessness pressures in 2024/25. We will announce local authority level allocations of this new funding in due course.

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