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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of people who have become homeless since the announcement of support for local authorities to accommodate rough sleepers temporarily.

Local authorities collect data on the actions they take under the provisions of the Housing Act 1996 on a quarterly basis and report them to the Government. These data collections are released quarterly as homelessness statistics. The most recent homelessness statistical release was on 19 March 2020. Local authorities are still required to provide this data throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.

We recognise the challenges that local authorities will face in providing accommodation 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. This funding will assist local authorities with providing accommodation and support to vulnerable people who are at risk of, or who have been diagnosed with, Covid-19.