§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much money his Department has provided for each year from 1991–92 to 1994–95 for helping homeless people.
§ Sir George Young[holding answer 29 June 1994]: My Department's housing expenditure in the years in question is set out in its annual report 1994, Cm 2507. Some £7.4 billion will be spent in 1994–95. The vast majority of that spending goes to help those who are in housing need, who need help with the repair of their housing or who have difficulty paying their local authority rent.
§ Mr. GerrardTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authority, housing association and voluntary sector hostel bedspaces for single homeless people there were in England on(a) 31 December 1993 and (b) 31 March 1994, or the most recent figures available.
§ Sir George YoungInformation available to my Department relates to bedspaces in hostels owned by registered housing associations. There were a total of 69,500 bedspaces in those hostels on 31 March 1993, the most recent date for which a figure is available. Those hostels cater not solely for single homeless people but for single people with a variety of special needs, many of whom are homeless.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy annual homelessness statistics publication includes data on the numbers of local authority hostel bedspaces for single homeless persons. A copy of the latest edition—"Homelessness Statistics 1992/93 Actuals"—is in the Library.
Information on hostel bedspaces for single homeless people in the voluntary sector is not held centrally.