The leader of Liverpool City Council has called on the Government for urgent help as the local authority’s homelessness accommodation bill jumps from £250,000 to £19m in three years.
Council leader Liam Robinson wrote to secretary of state for levelling up Michael Gove yesterday to request additional help with the ‘unprecedented’ rise in homelessness in the city.
The city council’s current Homeless Support grant of £1.7m ‘does not in any way reflect the need and growing demand in Liverpool’, Cllr Robinson informed the secretary of state.
There is a Housing & Homelessness crisis across the UK. Myself & @srcdoyle have written to the Government calling for the resources we need to deal with this emergency here in Liverpool pic.twitter.com/AtIXNpodPB
— Liam Robinson (@liamrobinson24) November 14, 2023
‘We currently have over 550 households in bed and breakfast accommodation and 250 of these are families with children,’ he wrote.
‘Our level of people sleeping rough is exacerbated as a resulted of the acceleration of decisions for refugees and asylum seekers by the Home Office. We have been advised that over 1,000 are likely to receive decisions this side of Christmas.’
