Homelessness

Question

15:00:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they are making on reducing homelessness.

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, and in doing so declare my interest as a trustee of the Nationwide Foundation.

My Lords, we are facing a homelessness crisis in every part of the country, with record levels that have become nothing short of a national disgrace. This Government acknowledge the devastating impact that homelessness has on so many lives. The current situation did not happen overnight; it is the result of long-standing neglect. We are addressing these failures head on with an injection of cash—allocating an extra £233 million to councils directly for homelessness, taking total funding to £1 billion next year—and through the long-term approach of working with mayors and councils across the country. The Government have set up an interministerial group chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister to develop a long-term strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.

My Lords, today marks 1,000 days since Royal Ascent was given to repeal the Vagrancy Act. Repealing this outdated law, which punishes people experiencing homelessness and pushes them further away from support, had overwhelming support from every party and every section of your Lordships’ House. Despite this, the last Government, and to date this Government, have not yet commenced repeal, citing concerns over the need for replacement powers, even though the latest report from MHCLG shows that this Act is being used less and less by police forces and that nearly half of them do not use it at all. I ask my noble friend one simple question: when are the Government going to commence the repeal of the Vagrancy Act?

I thank my noble friend for her campaigning around homelessness and on this issue. The Government view the Vagrancy Act 1824 as antiquated, cruel and no longer fit for purpose. No one should be criminalised for sleeping rough on the streets. I share her passion for ensuring it is confined to history, where it belongs. We want to ensure we avoid criminalising those who are most vulnerable, while ensuring that police and local authorities have the tools they need to make sure communities feel safe. As we move towards our steps on the Vagrancy Act, we are working closely with the Home Office and local partners. I was pleased that my honourable friend Minister Ali was able to announce yesterday an additional £20 million to deal with severe winter pressures, taking the total to £30 million.

Are the Government going to address the fact that we have never learned to turn the tap off? We have more and more people falling into homelessness from different sectors of society—people are having problems all over the place, as the noble Baroness said. My concern is this: we are always going on about the emergency, but where in the background are this Government or the next working on reducing homelessness by turning the tap off and getting rid of the inheritance of poverty, which is what produces most homelessness?

The noble Lord is quite right in what he says. He will know that we have set a target of building 1.5 million homes over the course of the Parliament, which in the long term is the answer to tackling this issue. In the short term, we need to tackle the issue of many children spending years in temporary accommodation, when they need space to play and develop, at the same time increasing the funding to tackle the long-term causes of homelessness and poverty, which, as he rightly says, sit at the heart of this. The Renters’ Rights Bill, which is coming before this House very shortly, will tackle some of the causes of homelessness.

My Lords, I declare my interest as a councillor in Central Bedfordshire. As the Minister has identified, the primary cause of homelessness is a lack of homes. London has nearly 70,000 families living in temporary accommodation—over half the total in England. Of those, almost half—33,000—live out-of-borough compared with one in seven for the rest of the country. Does the Minister agree that this is largely down to London having failed to build the homes that its residents need? What will this Government do to get London building?

The noble Lord will be aware that new targets have been set for building homes across the country, and in London no less. Local authorities use out-of-area placements to provide temporary accommodation, as he rightly mentioned. We are enabling more funding to go into London so that we can reduce the level of temporary homelessness accommodation. However, the long-term solution is to get more houses built, which is why we have increased the housebuilding target for London.

My Lords, according to data from the Ministry of Justice, the proportion of all prison leavers who were released homeless in 2023-24 was 13%. Considering that people are 50% more likely to re-offend if they are homeless, what steps are the Government taking to reduce rates of homelessness among prison leavers?

The right reverend Prelate is right to highlight homelessness for ex-offenders. Since 2021, more than £33 million has been awarded to local authorities to support nearly 6,000 ex-offenders into their own private rented accommodation. The number of individuals still enrolled on the programme and sustaining tenancies is nearly 3,000. The funding provided allows schemes to offer a range of support. It is very important that, alongside housing, we get that support, consisting of rental deposits, landlord incentives, and dedicated support staff with landlord liaison and tenancy support officers. That complements the MoJ’s community accommodation service. The right reverend Prelate is right that housing is key to preventing re-offending.

My Lords, worryingly, the total spend on homelessness is unknown, largely due to a loophole in what we call exempt accommodation, which I am sure the Minister is aware of. The usage of this is not tracked, and it is now evident that it attracts some of the worst providers. Can the Minister assure us that this Government will get to grips with this unquantified and uncontrolled spending, and with those who are exploiting some of the most vulnerable people in society and the public purse?

The noble Baroness is quite right. It is outrageous that people choose to exploit the individuals concerned in this situation and the councils that have to fund their accommodation. We are doing everything we can to discover the extent of this and to tackle it head on. We recognise the increasing costs of that temporary accommodation and the pressure that it places on council budgets. As well as the homelessness prevention grant, councils are expected to draw from their wider local government finance, as the noble Baroness is aware. The overall local government settlement made extra provision for that, as well as the additional homelessness funding. It is totally unacceptable for homeless people to be exploited. We continue to track that down everywhere we can.

Does my noble friend agree that we have a crisis now with the number of children and young people trapped in bed and breakfast accommodation, in totally unsuitable conditions, which will have an important and deleterious effect on their well-being? On the strategy she outlined, can she say more about the priority that the Government are giving to reducing the number of children and young people trapped in homelessness and to taking them out of that temporary system?

My noble friend is quite right. There is a short-term and very long-term effect on young people who get trapped in temporary accommodation. Councils must make sure that temporary accommodation is suitable for the needs of the household. Households can request a review of their accommodation if they feel it is unsuitable and it an applicant is not satisfied with how the council has handled their case. We have launched emergency accommodation reduction pilots, backed with £5 million, to work with the 20 local authorities that have the highest use of bed and breakfast accommodation for homeless families. Through the Renters’ Rights Bill, we will be applying the decent homes standard to the private rented sector; this includes a clause to bring temporary accommodation into the scope of the decent homes standard.

My Lords, the Minister may have seen the Sunday Times article by Martina Lees with the headline: “Our grotty B&B bedroom costs taxpayers £2,383 a month”. Can the Minister update us on the local authority housing fund, which enables the purchase of rundown properties for use on a temporary basis for temporary accommodation, which will save an enormous amount of money? In the long-term, with ownership by the council or a housing association, those properties can be used for years to come, providing vastly better value for money than the £283 a month for really grotty accommodation in the private sector.

The noble Lord is correct to flag up that issue, and I thank him for his work on housing and homelessness. The funding that the Government have introduced—the £450 million third round of the local authority housing fund—will support local authorities to get better quality temporary accommodation for homeless families. The third round is expected to deliver over 2,000 homes by 2026; funding will then be provided over the next two years, and will include revenue funding to support councils to deliver that fund. We are putting our money where our mouth is, but trying to resolve a problem that has occurred over many years is taking a great deal of effort. We will continue to strive to make sure that we put an end to the chronic homelessness we have seen in this country. It is time that we made sure everyone has a decent home to live in.