The Housing, Communities and Local Government
Committee has today published the Government's response
to the Committee's report on England's Homeless Children: The
crisis in temporary accommodation.
Government response to the
Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee report
on England's Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary
accommodation (published 16 June) (html version)
(news item)
, Chair of the
Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG)
Committee said: “The Committee's report, in April,
pointed to a crisis in temporary accommodation. Last year, a
record 127,000 households faced homelessness, with devastating
impacts to their health, work and education.
“When so many families are facing this crisis, the Government's
response is disappointingly lacking in substantive detail in
several key areas. In our report, we called on the Government to
publish its strategy on ending homelessness by July 2025. Given
the urgency of the issue, and the need to involve homelessness
organisations and local authorities in tackling the temporary
accommodation crisis, it is disappointing the Government is only
willing to commit to ‘later this year' for publication of the
strategy.
“The Committee's recommendation for the Government to provide an
update on the work of the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness
and Rough Sleeping has also been rejected. Given the purported
role of the Inter-Ministerial Group, the Government's response on
this issue does little to inspire confidence that the Group is
making the progress needed to ensure the homeless strategy is
truly effective”.
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee published
the England's Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary
accommodation report (pdf, html) on Thursday 3
April (see also news item).