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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Move On fund; and what plans his Department has for the future of that fund.

The 2016 Budget announced £100 million of grant for a new Move-On Fund, which will provide homes for former rough sleepers moving on from hostels and victims of domestic abuse moving on from refuge. The Fund is split equally between the Greater London Authority (GLA) in London and Homes England who are administering the fund outside of London.

The Move-On Fund is an ambitious attempt to build or adapt accommodation for former rough sleepers and households fleeing domestic abuse. This in turn will free-up emergency hostel space. The scheme structure is a new one and reliant on potential developers and providers bringing bids forward within a competitive property market. Together with our delivery partners at the GLA and Homes England we refined our approach and the delivery model utilising valuable learning from market tests in the first year. As a result, the scheme was slower to mobilise than anticipated, but since the model has been refined, we are seeing strong bids emerge to a combined value of £61.5 million.

We are in now in the final year of this funding, which is due to end by March 2022. Both organisations are continuing to invite bids for the remaining funding from prospective providers.