Responding to calls by Crisis to repeal the Vagrancy Act, Cllr
Simon Blackburn, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Safer
and Stronger Communities Board, said:
“Councils want to help people living on the streets and take a
balanced approach to tackle anti-social behaviour raised by local
communities, which includes persistent, aggressive begging and
intimidating behaviour, which can ruin people’s quality of life,
harm businesses or mean people are scared to visit public places.
“Before using their powers, councils will consider how they might
affect vulnerable people, often working with community partners
to help resolve any ongoing problems, in order to find a long
term solution. Enforcement action is always a last resort.
“With rough sleeping, councils are determined to prevent
homelessness and rough sleeping from happening in the first place
and support families affected, but this is becoming increasingly
difficult with homelessness services facing a £421 million
funding gap by 2024/25. This has severely limited the ability of
councils’ outreach services to support rough sleepers.
“Government needs to use the Spending Review to fund councils
sustainably to prevent homelessness in the first place, and to
help them resume their historic role as major housebuilders of
good-quality, affordable homes. This will help make homelessness
a thing of the past and remove housing insecurities for current
and future generations.
“Critical to this goal will be allowing councils to keep 100 per
cent of their Right to Buy receipts and to set discounts
locally.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
-
· Councils
in England face an overall funding gap of £8 billion by 2025. The
LGA’s #CouncilsCan campaign aims to influence the forthcoming
Spending Review and highlight the growing risk to vital local
services if the Government does not take action to secure the
financial sustainability of councils. Visit our campaign page for
more information - https://www.local.gov.uk/spending-review-2019
