Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 11 January (HL Deb, col 10), when they will make available to the House the number of hostel places available and the number of people sleeping rough in the UK.

One person without a home is one too many.

Whilst my Department does not hold information regarding the number of places in hostels for rough sleepers, Homeless Link, the national membership body for the single homelessness sector, estimates that in November 2014 there were 36,540 bed spaces in homelessness accommodation projects in England and 9,647 bed spaces in London.

Further information is available through Homeless Link’s Annual Survey of the sector. DCLG’s own annual snapshot indicates that in England there were 2,744 individuals sleeping rough on a single night in Autumn 2014. Just over a quarter of these, 742 individuals, were in London.

We have supported local areas to improve the quality of hostels through the Homelessness Change Programme, which provided £42.5 million of capital funding in 2012 – 2015 for new and refurbished bed spaces and facilities to provide meaningful activities to support pathways to independent living. The Department of Health is also funding a £40 million programme to refurbish hostels and improve the physical and mental health of rough sleepers, and provide low cost shared accommodation for young people at risk of homelessness.