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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide (1) support, and (2) services, to individuals before they have to sleep rough.

The Government has committed over £800 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over 2021/22. We are providing £375 million of Homelessness Prevention Grant funding, which can be used by local authorities to offer financial support for people to find a new home, to work with landlords to prevent evictions, and to ensure families have a roof over their head. This includes an exceptional top up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant for this financial year with an additional £65 million for local authorities to help vulnerable households with rent arrears to reduce the risk of them being evicted and becoming homeless.

This funding supports local authorities to deliver their statutory duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act, the most ambitious reform to homelessness legislation in decades, which came into force in April 2018. The Act placed new duties on local authorities to prevent and relieve a person's homelessness. Acting earlier and for a broader range of people means more people will get the help they need before they face a homelessness crisis. Since the Homelessness Reduction Act came into force, over 400,000 households have had their homelessness successfully prevented or relieved through securing accommodation for more than 6 months.