§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what special help is being given by his Department to local authorities to help homeless people now sleeping rough; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. YeoMy Department is providing, through Single Homelessness in London, a London boroughs working party, 300 places in shelters between December and March, at an estimated cost of £1 million. SHIL has developed a co-ordinated strategy of emergency shelters, transportation and support for those sleeping rough in central London during the winter.
This programme is part of my Department's £96 million rough sleepers initiative in central London, which has provided 500 places in hostels, with another 400 to come; 500 bedspaces in flats and houses leased from private owners, with a further 180 to come, and 370 places—out of an anticipated 2,000—in permanent housing.