Young Homeless (Hansard, 8 February 1999)

§ Mr. Raynsford

For young people to be without a suitable home can blight their lives and future development and lead to the social exclusion that this Government are determined to tackle. The problems of youth homelessness go beyond the simple provision of accommodation; many other factors are involved and all sectors, statutory, voluntary and business have a contribution to make.

That is why we have established the Youth Homelessness Action Partnership to bring together senior representatives of central governmental, local government and the voluntary sector. The Partnership is currently working on producing an agreed definition of youth homelessness and estimating the numbers involved. It will also identify what works in tackling and preventing youth homelessness, including the role of local strategies, and disseminate good practice to all the key players. The Partnership will also contribute towards the evaluation of the impact of Government policies on youth homelessness. The work of the Partnership will be underpinned by research to be commissioned later this year.

We have refocused our DETR section 180 grant programme, which provides grants to voluntary sector organisations concerned with homelessness, to give priority to projects that prevent and tackle youth homelessness. £8.1 million is available in 1998/99 and over 200 projects around England are benefiting from these grants.

The Government are committed to reducing the most extreme example of homelessness—rough sleeping—to as near to zero as possible in our towns and cities. The Prime Minister asked the Social Exclusion Unit to address the issue of rough sleeping as one of its first priorities. Their report sets a tough initial target of reducing the number of people sleeping rough throughout England, to a third of its current level by 2002.

A new Ministerial Committee, chaired by my hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government and Housing, has been established to ensure effective co-ordination of Government policy in preventing and tackling rough sleeping. The DETR will be responsible for co-ordination of the overall strategy for England on rough sleeping; including housing, health access to employment and training and benefits.

We will establish a new body for London which will be responsible for reducing the numbers of people sleeping rough in the Capital. The new body will have an 10W integrated budget of £143 million over the three years until 2002 to combat rough sleeping and the causes of rough sleeping.

Outside London, the SEU confirmed that local authorities are in the best position to take the lead on tackling rough sleeping and single, including youth, homelessness. To support local authorities in achieving the target reduction in rough sleeping in their area we have launched a new Homelessness Action Programme which will provide £34 million over the next three years to help voluntary organisations outside London to tackle and prevent rough sleeping. We announced details of over 250 voluntary sector projects which will benefit from this programme on 5 February.

We have also strengthened the safety net for families and vulnerable individuals who are homeless unintentionally. The revised Code of Guidance on Allocations and Homelessness which will be issued later this year will provide more advice to help local housing authorities develop effective strategies to assist single homeless people including young people.