Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced a £442m package to tackle rough sleeping and to help local authorities provide rough sleepers with a route off the streets by Christmas.
Areas facing the greatest pressures will receive the largest share of funding, with councils and mayors playing a leading role in shaping local action, the PM said.
The funding will help local areas deliver more than 1,000 settled homes over the next three years, alongside wraparound support to help people rebuild their lives.
Guidance published alongside the funding urges local areas to ensure accessible, trauma-informed provision for women, including consideration of single-sex accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
A first-of-its-kind national summit will also be held in the autumn, bringing together business, finance, charities, health and faith leaders to identify their role in tackling the crisis, according to the Government.
Around £8.4m of the package will go to the Ending Homelessness in Communities Fund, taking total funding for local projects to £47m over three years.
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Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said the Government is ‘working alongside councils, mayors and charities... to tackle rough sleeping at its roots, giving people the security, dignity and opportunity they deserve.’
‘No-one should have to bed down in a doorway or outside a station. But we’ve seen it for so long that it feels like Westminster has started to accept it,’ the PM said.
‘I won’t accept it. That’s why my first instruction as Prime Minister was to end rough sleeping. And it’s why today we’re getting started with a national drive to get everyone in for Christmas.
‘We did it in the pandemic. We can do it again. But it needs all of us. Government will put the money in. But I’m asking leaders in communities and sectors across society to play their part locally too.’
Cllr Liam Robinson, Chair of the LGA’s Inclusive Growth Committee, said: ‘It is right that local areas, who know their communities best, will determine how to use this additional funding. Councils are integral to the efforts to prevent homelessness in the first place, but need sustainable resourcing and empowerment to ensure any progress is lasting.
‘Councils’ net spend on homelessness services has risen by £950m (125%) in real terms from 2019/20 to 2024/25, and there has been an increase of 51.9% of people requiring temporary accommodation in the same period. Given the scale of this challenge, we need ambition and resources to make the progress we need in the long term, and most importantly, to address the root causes of homelessness in this country.’
