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<p>The Government has committed to eliminating rough sleeping in the term of this parliament and to fully enforcing the Homelessness Reduction Act, committing over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the current spending review period to April 2020.</p><p>In December 2019 we announced the allocation of £263 million in funding for 2020/21 to local authorities designed to support them to deliver services to tackle homelessness. This is an uplift of £23 million on the previous year. The funding has been allocated through a formula which reflects relative homeless pressures, while at the same time aiming to protect local authorities which currently have high levels of temporary accommodation.</p><p>We have committed to reviewing the implementation of the Act, including the resourcing of it and how it is working in practice, by March 2020. We will make decisions about future funding beyond 2020/21 after the review has concluded.</p><p>Since 2018, the Rough Sleeping Initiative has provided a total of £76 million to 246 councils across the country, supporting rough sleepers off the streets and into secure accommodation, where they can get the help they need to rebuild their lives. In its first year, the initiative delivered over 1,750 new bed spaces as well as enabling areas with the highest levels of rough sleeping to hire more than 500 new staff. This year, we are providing funding for an estimated 2,600 bed spaces and 750 staff.</p> |