Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the
number of people who will be homeless this Christmas; and what
plans they have to reduce the number of people who have no home
of their own.
(LD)
My Lords, in begging leave to ask the Question standing in my
name on the Order Paper, I remind the House that I am a
vice-president of the Local Government Association.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Levelling Up, Housing & Communities () (Con)
My Lords, the latest available statistics are for April to June
2023; data for December 2023 will be available in the spring. We
are providing significant investment to tackle homelessness and
rough sleeping—more than £2 billion over three years. This
includes more than £1 billion to support local authorities to
prevent homelessness, with a further £120 million secured at the
Autumn Statement for next year to relieve homelessness
pressures.
(LD)
I thank the Minister for her reply. She will be aware that at
least 300,000 people will spend this Christmas without a home,
including 140,000 children, which is a 14% increase in one year.
Is the Minister aware that the number of households trapped in
temporary accommodation reached a record high last year, yet only
9,500 social rent homes were delivered? What work are the
Government doing to increase the supply of social rent homes to
reach the 90,000 required each year to end homelessness?
(Con)
My Lords, I acknowledge that those figures are too high. Our
focus as a Government has been on preventing people falling into
homelessness. That is what a large part of our budget has focused
on. The noble Lord is also right that we need to increase forms
of affordable housing. We need social rent, yes, but also all
forms of affordable housing. That is what we are doing through
our affordable housing programme, which is delivering large
numbers of additional affordable housing into the system each
year.
(Con)
Does my noble friend—
(CB)
Are the Government aware—
(Con)
My Lords—
(Con)
My Lords, there is plenty of time. Can we have the noble Lord,
, and then my noble friend ?
(CB)
Are the Government aware that for every person who falls
homeless—they are not all out on the streets—the cost of running
that homeless family or individual is two or three times higher
than if you keep them in their homes? Has the Treasury done any
serious work looking at how to keep the costs of homelessness
down by keeping people in their homes?
(Con)
The noble Lord is absolutely right. That is why we passed the
Homelessness Reduction Act and why more than half the support we
have put directly into tackling homelessness is around
prevention. That is funding to local authorities to work with
landlords to prevent evictions, for example, before people find
themselves in the position of needing to seek out temporary
accommodation.
(Con)
Does my noble friend realise that it is just over 50 years since
the last new town was designated: Milton Keynes? Part of the
concept of new towns was to relieve inner-city homelessness and
to provide decent homes for young and old couples who did not
find them in the city. Will my noble friend look again at
bringing back a new, modern—possibly garden—city concept so that
this major problem can begin to be addressed?
(Con)
My Lords, this Government embrace the building of the right homes
in the right places; that includes new towns. It also includes
greater densification in parts of our cities that are well
connected to transport opportunities and jobs. We need more homes
across the board, and that is what we are committed to
delivering.
(Lab)
My Lords, I did not expect to hear the noble Lord, , promoting Labour Party policy,
but well done. On current trends, almost 6,000 households could
be threatened with homelessness in the final quarter of 2023,
covering this Christmas and New Year period. This is driven by a
chronic shortage of decent, secure and affordable housing and
accelerated by a storm of rising rents, the cost of living crisis
and a refusal to ban no-fault evictions. I urge the Minister to
bring forward amendments to the Renters (Reform) Bill to end
no-fault evictions so that fewer families will be at risk next
year.
(Con)
My Lords, the Renters (Reform) Bill contains proposals to do
exactly that; it will end no-fault Section 21 evictions. It is
part of a suite of housing reforms that this Government have
brought in to drive up standards in both the private rented and
social rented sectors. We look forward to discussing that Bill
when it reaches this House next year.
The Lord
My Lords, like many places, Nottingham is suffering from the cost
of living crisis, fuel and food poverty, a decline of social
housing and a growing shortage of private rented sector
properties, which is compounded by the shortfall between the
local housing allowance and rents. Framework Housing Association
and Emmanuel House do exceptional work, together with the city
council, in seeking to help the 10,000 people on the waiting list
with an unmet housing need, alongside the street homeless. But
the rising demand for social care and increased homelessness have
contributed to the council issuing a Section 114 notice. If His
Majesty’s Government agree that the charitable and voluntary
sector is such a key partner in addressing these needs, can the
Minister offer more direct funding to help the homeless in cities
such as Nottingham?
(Con)
My Lords, the right reverend Prelate mentioned many different
factors that go into this problem. One was the affordability of
private rented sector accommodation, so I am sure he will welcome
the fact that in the Autumn Statement we committed to increasing
local housing allowance rates. Charities and other organisations
do great work in this sector, and we will also continue to
support them in their work.
(Lab)
My Lords, more than 300,000 people, including 140,000 children,
are homeless in England, one of the wealthiest countries on this
planet. Can the Minister tell the House why the Government’s
policies continue to fail to reduce the number of homeless people
in England?
(Con)
My Lords, this problem requires many different responses. I have
talked about the work we are doing to prevent homelessness, for
example through working with landlords, and what we are doing to
increase local housing allowance rates to make the private rented
sector more affordable. Ultimately, we also need to increase the
supply of housing. We are doing that through building more
houses. We have delivered larger numbers of houses in recent
years than in many years before and are delivering the right mix
of houses built for rent, for social rent and for affordable
ownership, as well as houses in the private sector.
(Con)
My Lords, is my noble friend aware of the scheme that Westminster
City Council has run for the last few years whereby there is a
24-hour helpline? Anyone who sees a rough sleeper can call that
line and an experienced outreach worker will go out, contact that
rough sleeper and try to persuade them to come into a hostel and
help rebuild their life. Should not this sort of scheme be
replicated throughout the country if the Government are to hit
their target of ending rough sleeping by the end of next
year?
(Con)
My Lords, I am aware of the scheme. In fact, I have been out with
some of the charities that respond to those reports and go and
seek out people the next day and offer them further help and
support. I think it is a very effective scheme, and I am sure we
would want to look at what can be done to see it spread further
if it is not available in different forms across the country.
(LD)
My Lords, the District Councils’ Network is reporting that some
councils are now spending between 20% and 50% of their total
budgets on meeting their statutory obligations to provide
temporary accommodation but that the subsidy given to them to do
so has not increased since 2011. Is this something the Government
will look at?
(Con)
My Lords, there are currently no plans to change that amount but
we are looking to help local authorities with these pressures in
a number of different ways. I have mentioned the change to the
local housing allowance rate. Something else that the Government
have invested substantially in is the local authority housing
fund, which allows local authorities to increase their supply of
good-quality temporary accommodation to relieve some of the
pressures on them. We announced in the Autumn Statement that
there would be an extra £450 million going into that fund over
the next two years.
The Lord Speaker ()
My Lords, the noble Lord, , is participating
remotely.
(Lab) [V]
Does this Question not take us right back to the price of land
for affordable housing? In Nijmegen in Holland, the Waalsprong
urban extension of 11,000 homes is being built on 3,000 acres of
land acquired at agricultural prices. Similar is happening at
Hammarby, near Stockholm in Sweden. Why do we insist on paying
landowners inflated land compensation prices when the country
needs to house our growing population? We need new thinking on
land for affordable housing—it is quite simple.
(Con)
My Lords, the issue of land ownership and transparency is one
that we have debated before. One measure that the Government have
taken forward in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act is greater
transparency over not just land ownership but the contractual
controls over land that allow councils, developers and other
people seeking to build more affordable housing to have a better
idea of what land is available and in whose control it is, so
that they can take forward their plans and be more effective.
