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<p>This Government is clear that nobody should be without a roof over their head.
That is why we have committed to ending rough sleeping for good, with the aim of halving
it by 2022.</p><p>Last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy.
This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now,
but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all.
The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough
sleeping over the spending review period.</p><p>We are giving serious consideration
to the findings of the report from St Mungo’s and Homeless Link. Housing-related support
services are a local government responsibility. To deepen our understanding, we are
undertaking a review of housing-related support services in order to build a comprehensive
picture of current arrangements and how support and housing fit together.</p><p>We
also know that we need to build more social homes, which will help us to achieve our
goal of preventing homelessness. The Government has made £9 billion available through
the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022, to deliver 250,000 new affordable homes
of a wide range of tenures - including social rent. The expanded programme will provide
homes to meet the housing needs of a range of people in different circumstances and
different housing markets – building the right homes in the right places.</p><p>We
understand the importance of giving local areas security around funding. The Chancellor
has said that there will be a spending review this year. Decisions about the future
of homelessness funding, along with all other government funding, will be made at
this point. Ministers have made clear that homelessness and rough sleeping are a key
priority for this Government. We are working with other government departments to
assess what more can be done to combat rough sleeping and wider homelessness. This
work is being overseen by the Ministerial Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction
Taskforce and will be an important part of our preparations for the forthcoming Spending
Review.</p><p>While there is more work to be done in this area, there are some positive
developments which I would like to point to. For the first time since 2010, the annual
rough sleeping statistics saw a decrease in the number of those sleeping rough. Whilst
only 2 per cent, this is in the face of average yearly increases of nearly 16 per
cent. The annual rough sleeping statistics also showed a 19 per cent decrease in the
number of those sleeping rough amongst the 83 local authorities that were part of
the first phase of our Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) in comparison with 2017. We
are currently carrying out an evaluation of the impact of our RSI, that will help
to determine what effect our funding has had on reducing numbers of rough sleepers</p><p><br>In
its first year, RSI funding provided over 1,750 new bed spaces and 500 staff across
the country. This year we have expanded the initiative with an investment of £46 million
providing funding for an estimated 2,600 bed spaces and 750 staff. £12 million of
this is for areas new to the programme, bringing the total authorities funded to 246.</p>
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