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 potential merits of social outcomes contracts in supporting people who are homeless.

MHCLG has supported and delivered three social outcome contracts for people who are homeless and assessed the effectiveness of these.

The first was the London Homelessness Social Impact Bond (SIB) (2012-15) which encouraged innovative approaches to support entrenched to 830 rough sleepers in London. The impact evaluation of the programme compared results for the intervention group with those of a well-matched comparison group. One of the key findings was that the programme had significantly reduced rough sleeping over a two-year period. After two years, the mean number of rough sleeping contacts was 9.2 for the intervention group, compared to 13.9 for the comparison group. It is estimated that this resulted in around 3,900 rough sleeping episodes being avoided over two years as a result of the intervention. The evaluation also found that the individuals supported by the intervention were significantly more likely than the comparison group to completely desist from sleeping rough, enter long-term accommodation and, among non-UK nationals, have a confirmed reconnection.

The second was the 3-year Fair Chance Fund (Jan 2015 - Dec 2017) SIB which supported 1,910 homeless young people (18-24 years old) to improve accommodation, education, and employment outcomes.

From October 2017 to March 2021, the department also funded a £11.2 million rough sleeping SIB, targeting the most entrenched rough sleepers with multiple complex needs. Our data shows that around 1,700 deeply entrenched rough sleepers have been supported through this programme. MHCLG has worked with local authorities to produce reports to illustrate learning and key lessons.

MHCLG have assessed the learning from these programmes which has developed our understanding of interventions and support services that work for the most vulnerable people who sleep rough. This will continue to be considered in future delivery programmes, and any SIB programmes which the department undertakes.