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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of the time-limit for local authorities for spending Government funding to address homelessness during the covid-19 outbreak on the provision of medium- to long-term solutions to homelessness by those authorities; and if he will make a statement.

Tackling homelessness and rough sleeping is a priority for this Government. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic 15,000 vulnerable people have been housed in emergency accommodation.

We are?also supporting those at risk of homelessness, with?an injection of?£9.3?billion into the welfare system.??This includes increasing the?Local Housing Allowance rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants so that they are set at the 30th percentile of market rents.

The Government has also brought forward legislation requiring landlords to provide six months’ notice in most circumstances. This will be in force from 29 August 2020 until 31 March 2021.