To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
prevent homeless people who are living in hostels or supported
homes in England from being pushed back on to the streets; and
what progress they have made with their target to end rough
sleeping by 2024.
(Con)
Yesterday, the annual rough sleeping snapshot statistics were
published, which showed a rise in the number of people sleeping
rough on a single night. However, the long-term trends show the
considerable progress we have made: rough sleeping levels remain
35% lower than at their peak in 2017. But we are not complacent.
This Government remain steadfastly committed to ending rough
sleeping. We are delivering 6,000 move-on homes through the rough
sleeping accommodation programme, and our strategy, published in
September last year, outlined how we will invest £2 billion over
the next three years.
(CB)
I thank the Minister for that Answer. My problem is with the
extension of homelessness that has taken place—a 34% increase in
the number of people facing no-fault evictions, which is the
Section 21 that we need to address. We have 125,000 children in
temporary accommodation and 100,000 households in temporary
accommodation. These are the kinds of figures that are going to
drive the Government’s plan for 2024 into the long grass, and I
would like to know how they are going to address the increase in
homelessness among people who have never, ever come anywhere near
it and will end up rough sleeping.
(Con)
The noble Lord makes some very good points, and there are a
number of very complex issues that contribute to the rise in
homelessness, particularly in the private rented sector. We shall
be legislating on private rented sector reform, and that does
remain a top priority for this Government. We will bring forward
legislation within this Parliament. On 16 June last year, we
published our White Paper, A Fairer Private Rented Sector, which
sets out our plan fundamentally to reform the sector and level
out housing quality. The Government are committed to banning the
Section 21 no-fault evictions to protect tenants and will
introduce the renters’ reform Bill in this Parliament.
(Con)
My Lords, the point that we want to establish is that, as the
noble Lord, , knows, rooflessness is very
different from homelessness. These latest statistics are very
concerning indeed, although the overall trend being 35% down is
positive. What I really want to know is whether the Minister
knows how many have been sleeping rough a second night, which is
obviously even more concerning. Have we made progress in that
regard?
(Con)
The annual snapshot that we take in autumn is our official and
most robust measure of rough sleeping on a single night. It is
independently verified. I do not have the numbers for those who
are out for a second night. But we know that the longer a person
stays on the street, the more difficult it becomes to rebuild a
life off it. As set out in the cross-government rough sleeping
strategy, Ending Rough Sleeping for Good, we will have ended
rough sleeping when it is prevented wherever possible and, where
it does occur, is rare, brief and non-recurrent. We do have the
No Second Night Out initiative, which pays for 14,000 beds and
3,000 support staff this year, with services ranging from
emergency interventions to focus on preventions and a more
sustained off-the-street accommodation offer with support.
(Lab)
My Lords, this remains a real issue, and the Minister, I am
afraid, is being rather complacent. We know that what has
happened since 2010 is that there have been unprecedented levels
of rough sleeping. We managed, in the early part of the 1997
Government, to reduce rough sleeping almost to nonexistence. We
know how to do it. The Government know how to do it, but it is
not happening. We now have the additional crisis that so many of
the charities that are there to help those who are in most
difficulty are going under, and their finances are stretched. The
Government have got to do something—just what are they going to
do?
(Con)
We are absolutely not complacent, as I said in my initial Answer.
In fact, between October and December, when the snapshot was
taken, our management accounts show that homelessness reduced by
27%—although I acknowledge that that is partly as a result of
seasonal variations, which happen every year. The Homelessness
Reduction Act 2018 was the most ambitious reform to homelessness
legislation in decades. Since it came into force in 2018, over
half a million households have been prevented from becoming
homeless or have been supported into settled accommodation. As a
demonstration of our determination not to be complacent, we have
put £2 billion into the fund to help reduce homelessness. The
noble Baroness is entirely wrong to use 2010 as a comparator,
because that is when the statistics were started on this basis.
She might like to know that we are almost up to the level of
highest number of households in temporary accommodation, which
was in 2004.
(LD)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the one silver lining of
the awful tragedy of the Covid pandemic was the Everyone In
project, led by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey? But the chance to
keep every homeless person in was then, frankly, squandered. Will
the Minister agree to look into that wasted opportunity—the
extraordinary waste of the chance at that particular moment? Will
she come back to the House and explain why the Government have
wasted that one critical moment when everyone was in, which could
have been used to hit that specific target in the Conservative
manifesto? That is clearly not going to be reached, as evidenced
by the statistics yesterday.
(Con)
I think we can all agree that the statistics yesterday were
deeply disappointing. That is certainly a reflection of the cost
of living, with a number of people being evicted from rental
accommodation having fallen behind in arrears. However, there is
much that we are doing to help: we have the rough sleeping
initiative, Housing First, the Night Shelter Transformation fund,
supported housing, and we are funding local authorities to
provide assisted housing. We are doing a number of different
things, which are all wrapped up in a £2 billion package, and,
having spoken to the banks, I can assure the noble Baroness that
we are all fighting the same war and that we still stick to our
manifesto pledge to get rid of homelessness.
(Con)
My Lords, I raise a subject that I have raised several times
before: namely, the 200 year-old Vagrancy Act, which refers to
“rogues and vagabonds” living in stables and coach houses.
Everyone agrees that this Act has nothing to do with helping
rough sleeping. On the contrary, by diverting rough sleepers down
the criminal justice route, it isolates them from the support
which my noble friend has said is available. Two years ago, the
Government said that they would repeal the Vagrancy Act. Can my
noble friend give a date for when that will happen?
(Con)
The Government does agree that the Vacancy Act is antiquated and
not fit for purpose, and therefore we have committed to repealing
it. We made that commitment during the passage of the Police,
Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. Our commitment to repealing it
has always been dependent on introducing modern replacement
legislation to ensure that police and other agencies continue to
have the powers that they need to keep communities safe and
protect vulnerable individuals. As usual, I cannot give specific
date when we will bring the legislation in; all I can say, as
usual, is that we will bring forward suitable replacement
legislation in a future legislative vehicle.
(CB)
My Lords, do the Government recognise that the cuts in funding
for support to homeless people now mean that, since the 2010
level, 12,000 more people needing psychological support are in
long-term homelessness, which is often due to adverse childhood
experiences and their subsequent turning to alcohol, and that
alcohol is now the cause of almost one in 10 of the deaths among
the homeless? Without addressing those underlying psychological
causes, the problems behind the homelessness of many people will
never be addressed.
(Con)
I can assure the noble Baroness that the homelessness strategy
crosses all departments, including the Home Office, the
Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Justice, the
Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for
Education and the Ministry of Defence. My briefing from the DWP
on this very point states that the local housing allowance policy
is kept under regular review, we monitor average rents and a
significant support package for renters was announced in the
autumn Budget. We are doing everything we can to provide
household support in order to help people navigate through this
very difficult time.
