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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help shelters for rough sleepers plan for the winter with covid-19 social distancing rules in place.

Nearly 15,000 vulnerable people have been housed in emergency accommodation since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown period. This includes people coming in directly from the streets, people previously housed in shared night shelters and people who have become vulnerable to rough sleeping during the pandemic.

The Next Steps Accommodation Programme makes available the financial resources needed to support local authorities and their partners to prevent those accommodated from returning to the streets. £161 million will deliver 3,300 units of?longer-term move-on accommodation?in 2020/2021. This is part of a total of £433 million to provide 6,000 long term, safe homes for those in need.

£105 million?will pay for immediate support and interim accommodation to help ensure that people do not return to the streets.

We are working closely with the homelessness sector and health experts to explore how to best support people at risk of sleeping rough going forward.