§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what initiatives he has launched to combat homelessness within(a) the UK and (b) Sefton since 1993. [94581]
§ Mr. MullinSince taking office, the Government have strengthened the legislation to give homeless people reasonable preference in the allocation of long-term social housing. My Department has also set up a sounding board with representatives from local and central Government and the voluntary sector to consider further proposals to give effect to our Manifesto pledge to increase the protection afforded to unintentionally homeless people in priority need. We have also set up a joint liaison committee, the Youth Homelessness Action Partnership, to look specifically at issues affecting homelessness among young people.
One of the first priorities the Prime Minister set for the Social Exclusion Unit was to report on Rough Sleeping. They identified that rough sleepers' problems and needs span the responsibilities of several central Government Departments. In response to this, a new Ministerial Committee on Rough Sleeping (MCRS), chaired by the Minister for Local Government and the Regions, has been established to ensure effective co-ordination of Government policy on this.
The Government have also established the Rough Sleepers Unit, which has the tough target of reducing the number of people sleeping rough by two-thirds by 2002. It is directly responsible to the MCRS for progress against the target and has a budget of £145 million over three years. This money is provided from a range of departmental sources (including DETR, DoH, DSS and DfEE) and will be used as a flexible integrated budget to tackle the health, education, training and benefit, as well as housing, aspects of rough sleeping.
We have also announced a £34 million funding over the next three years for over 250 projects outside London under the New Homelessness Action Programme. Sefton has received £44,034 to provide workers for two projects. Early in the New Year we will be inviting further bids for funding from voluntary organisations in the light of the forthcoming national strategy document on rough sleeping.
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§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what steps he has taken to reduce the number of homeless persons living(a) in Merseyside and (b) in Sefton. [94647]
§ Mr. MullinWe have announced that £34 million will be available under the Homelessness Action Programme over the next three years to fund voluntary agencies to address the problem of homelessness outside London. Organisations in Merseyside have been allocated £458,696 to provide youth, outreach, project and field workers for five schemes. £44,034 of this is for two projects in Sefton. We will be inviting further bids under the programme following the launch of the new national strategy on rough sleeping, which we will be launching before the end of the year.