Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that rough sleepers (a) not known to local authorities at and (b) who have become homeless since the beginning of the crisis can access (i) emergency accommodation and (ii) adequate support.

We recognise the challenges that local authorities will face in providing assistance to vulnerable people as they fulfil their homelessness duties during this pandemic. This is why we have announced that councils across England will receive another £1.6 billion in additional funding to enable them to respond to COVID-19 pressures across the services they deliver, stepping up support for services helping the most vulnerable, including homeless people. This takes the total funding to support councils to respond to the pandemic to £3.2 billion. This is in addition to £3.2 million targeted funding to ensure that we minimise the risk to those rough sleepers currently unable to self-isolate.

The Government has introduced a package of measures to protect renters affected by coronavirus aimed in part at preventing any increase in homelessness. With these in force, no renter in either social or private accommodation will be forced out of their home. Landlords must give all renters 3 months’ notice if they intend to seek possession.

Additionally, we have increased the Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that they are set at the 30th percentile of market rents. This means that from April 2020 many people renting in the Private Rented Sector will have seen an increase in their housing support.