Recommendations & Conclusions
29 items
2
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
It is unacceptable that B&B accommodation is being used routinely to house people rather than as a last resort. We are alarmed at the detrimental impact that living in B&B accommodation has on people’s lives–not least on children, whose safety and wellbeing can be profoundly compromised by such living arrangements. …
Government response. The government agrees and has launched Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots with £8 million funding for 20 local authorities to reduce B&B use. Its Homelessness Advice and Support Team (HAST) advisers continue to work with all local authorities, especially those with …
HM Treasury
3
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
Too many people’s lives are disrupted by being placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local area. For a variety of reasons, including lack of housing supply and suitability of accommodation, some local authorities struggle to place households in temporary accommodation within their local area. Over the period 2018–19 to …
Government response. The government agrees and will publish improved data on out-of-area placements regularly to assist local authorities in coordination. It will also continue to explore additional steps to incentivise councils to use local provision, beyond existing legislative requirements.
HM Treasury
4
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We are not convinced that, in setting Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates, the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has given due consideration to the impact on homelessness. Reforms to welfare benefits since 2011, including periodically capping and freezing LHA rates, have reduced the income households can derive from benefits …
Government response. The government agrees and states the recommendation has been implemented, as the Department for Work and Pensions wrote to the Committee on 21 February 2025. This letter detailed its justification for the levels of Local Housing Allowance for both individuals …
HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
Tackling homelessness has long been hampered by the absence of a joined up, cross-government approach. Each of the UK devolved administrations has an overarching homelessness strategy or action plan. By contrast, there is no strategy or target for homelessness in England, despite this Committee having recommended in 2017 that a …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation. It is monitoring reforms in Scotland and will engage with devolved administrations on its homelessness strategy. Regulations were implemented on 18 December 2024 to exempt all veterans from local connection tests, and MHCLG will …
HM Treasury
6
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
The homelessness problem is being exacerbated by a severe shortage in housing supply, and especially affordable housing. Homes England, which is sponsored by MHCLG, fell below its central targets in 2022–23 in terms of new home starts, completions, unlocked housing capacity and households supported into home ownership. MHCLG accepts that …
Government response. The government agrees, clarifying that Homes England exceeded its targets for new homes, including affordable homes, in 2023-24. Homes England is currently designing a new Affordable Housing Programme with revised targets, and MHCLG will publish a housing strategy detailing actions …
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
Despite legislation designed to tackle well-established problems and gaps in regulation, MHCLG has made no progress in improving the oversight of the supported housing sector. Supported housing can provide much-needed homes for people transitioning from homelessness, or may stop people from becoming homeless in the first place. But this Committee …
Government response. The government published a consultation on 20 February 2025, open for 12 weeks, detailing proposals for a local licensing regime and national standards for supported housing, and seeking views on linking Housing Benefit.
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
In its written submission, the Shared Health Foundation emphasised that, aside from plans to build more houses, national prevention strategies for all forms of homelessness remain limited. It claimed that many families facing homelessness are told by local authorities to wait until their eviction date before being provided with emergency …
Government response. The government agrees and committed to sending its plans by April 2025 for incentivising local authorities to improve their homelessness prevention duties.
HM Treasury
9
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
MHCLG told us that it was actively looking at ways to incentivise and support local government to move more funding into preventive rather than reactive activity.13 We pressed MHCLG on how it might achieve this. It explained that local authorities have different strategies–for example, in terms of intervening in the …
Government response. The government accepts the recommendation and has provided the Committee with its plans, targeting implementation by April 2025, for incentivising local authorities to improve their homelessness prevention duties and share best practices.
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
MHCLG explained that a £230 million increase in allocations for homelessness in the autumn 2024 budget, including uplifts in the Homelessness Prevention Grant, and an improved wider local government finance settlement, should help local authorities to do more preventive work. It also summarised a number of other actions that might …
Government response. The government agrees and committed to sending its plans by April 2025 for incentivising local authorities to improve their homelessness prevention duties.
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
There are particular concerns about the use of B&Bs as temporary accommodation, regarding the suitability of the environment and location, safeguarding in mixed settings, and a lack of support from wider public services. Children in B&Bs often face particular challenges, such as not having the space for their physical development, …
Government response. The government states it agrees with the recommendation (despite the item being a conclusion) and has launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots in January 2025, backed by £8 million, to work with local authorities to reduce the use of B&Bs …
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
Reflecting these concerns, the homelessness code of guidance states that local authorities should use B&Bs for households with children only as a last resort, and even then, for a maximum of six weeks. However, MHCLG told us that, as at June 2024, due to the shortage of alternative options, there …
Government response. The government states it agrees with the recommendation (despite the item being a conclusion) and has launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots in January 2025, backed by £8 million, to work with local authorities to reduce the use of B&Bs …
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
MHCLG conceded that placing families in B&B accommodation is a “seriously sub-optimal” way of accommodating them. It therefore assumes that local authorities should use as little B&B accommodation as they can. However, if using B&Bs is the only way to meet statutory duties, MHCLG considers that it is value for …
Government response. The government launched Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots in January 2025 with £5 million, and an additional £3 million in February 2025, to work with 20 local authorities to reduce B&B use for homeless families. HAST advisers will also continue to …
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We challenged MHCLG about what it is doing to help local authorities reduce their reliance on B&Bs. It explained that it had added a condition to the Homelessness Prevention Grant, so that it now requires any local authority with more than five families in B&B accommodation over the statutory six-week …
Government response. The government launched Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots in January 2025 with £5 million, followed by an additional £3 million in February 2025, to work with 20 local authorities to reduce B&B use for homeless families. HAST advisers will also continue …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We asked MHCLG how successfully HAST was supporting local authorities to move away from B&B use. It told us that advisers are based in MHCLG offices all around the country, but they generally spend their time working alongside local authorities. HAST reviews information on B&B use quarterly and carries out …
Government response. The government states it agrees with the recommendation (despite the item being a conclusion) and has launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots in January 2025, backed by £8 million, to work with local authorities to reduce the use of B&Bs …
HM Treasury
17
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We asked MHCLG how far away from their home area these families were living. It replied that it does not have the data to understand the exact figures involved, although it is aware that some families are being placed at a considerable distance. MHCLG told us that it agreed with …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation, and MHCLG is exploring publishing additional temporary accommodation data, including quantifying out-of-area placements, from its existing collection by April 2025 to enhance data availability and inter-authority coordination.
HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
MHCLG accepted that this is an area where it needs stronger and more transparent data. We asked if this was something that MHCLG’s homelessness case level information collection (H-CLIC) dataset could help with. It explained that, while joining up data from across local authorities was hard, and the relatively small …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation, with MHCLG exploring options to publish additional temporary accommodation data, including out-of-area placements, from its existing collection by April 2025 to improve data availability and local authority collaboration.
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
The LHA sets the maximum amount of housing support that claimants of housing benefit and universal credit can usually receive, to help with housing costs in the private rented sector.26 Since 2011, DWP has introduced welfare reforms designed to reduce overall welfare spending and incentivise benefit recipients to take up …
Government response. DWP wrote to the Committee on 21 February 2025, setting out its justification for the levels of Local Housing Allowance it has set, both for individuals and for local authorities with regard to the temporary accommodation subsidy.
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We asked DWP what analysis it had done on the extent to which homelessness is impacted by LHA rates not allowing people to afford rents in their area. It explained that the decision, for example, to freeze the LHA rate again for 2025–26 was not taken in isolation. It went …
Government response. The government states the recommendation is implemented and that DWP wrote to the Committee on 21 February 2025 to justify the Local Housing Allowance levels for individuals and local authorities regarding temporary accommodation subsidy.
HM Treasury
24
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
DWP explained that it sets the subsidy level using a rate that has never covered local authorities’ full costs, to incentivise them in their procurement of temporary accommodation. MHCLG added that it considers local authorities’ financial position with regard to the temporary accommodation subsidy when making decisions about the local …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has been implemented, with the DWP having written to the Committee on 21 February 2025 to justify the levels of Local Housing Allowance and temporary accommodation subsidy.
HM Treasury
27
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
MHCLG explained that an inter-ministerial group on homelessness now exists, and it chairs the equivalent officials group. It plans to produce a cross-government strategy for tackling homelessness in 2025, which will include a number of metrics and set out the way that progress against these metrics will be measured. We …
Government response. The government accepts the recommendation to improve cross-government efficiency, committing to consolidate various homelessness grants into a single grant from 2025-26 and exploring further consolidation into the Local Government Finance Settlement from 2026-27.
HM Treasury
28
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We pressed MHCLG on the poor coordination in funding for homelessness caused by the absence of a cross-government strategy. Local authorities need to understand numerous funding streams, from different government departments. MHCLG explained that its November 2024 local government funding policy statement undertook to roll together three of its funding …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation to improve funding coordination for homelessness, committing to consolidate three grants for 2025-26, and planning wider local government finance reform from 2026-27 to simplify grant funding and explore further homelessness grant consolidation.
HM Treasury
29
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
In May 2024, we reported our concern at the Home Office failing to engage effectively with local authorities about the impact on local areas of its efforts to house asylum seekers.40 In discussing homelessness, we asked MHCLG what was being done to stop situations where local authorities are looking for …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation, stating the Home Office is collaborating with MHCLG and local authorities to develop a future asylum accommodation strategy by after the Spending Review 2025, aimed at ending hotel use and reducing competition for accommodation.
HM Treasury
30
Conclusion
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
MHCLG has suggested that a significant ramping-up in affordable housing supply, beyond individual strategic sites, would be needed to make a substantial impact on homelessness, requiring new supply in areas where homelessness pressures are particularly acute, including the South East, South West and London. However, it has also conceded that …
Government response. The government states it agrees with the recommendation (despite the item being a conclusion) but refutes the claim that Homes England missed targets, stating it exceeded housing delivery targets in 2023-24, and commits to developing a new Affordable Homes Programme …
HM Treasury
31
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
Many of the written submissions that we received focused on housing supply. The Chartered Institute of Housing, for example, made the case for increasing the supply of quality homes at social rents via government grant, because it would reduce overall government spending on benefits.44 The Local Government Association suggested steps …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation, committing to publishing a housing strategy after the Spending Review 2025 to increase housing supply and affordability, and notes Homes England's ongoing work to design a new Affordable Homes Programme.
HM Treasury
32
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We pressed MHCLG on the main barriers to increasing housing supply. It replied that one of the key issues is viability of sites, and that it is engaging actively with local government on the use of Section 106 money (funding that local authorities receive from developers, to pay for community …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and plans to publish a housing strategy after the Spending Review 2025, outlining a long-term vision and actions to build 1.5 million homes and increase affordable housing, while also reporting Homes England's exceeding recent …
HM Treasury
34
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We asked whether the strategy would also include clear targets for the number of social housing units that would need to be built. MHCLG explained that it could not make a commitment about the content of a strategy that is ultimately for ministers to decide upon. But it suggested that …
Government response. The government agrees to publish a housing strategy after the Spending Review 2025, which will include actions to build 1.5 million homes and increase affordable housing, with Homes England designing a new Affordable Homes Programme with updated targets.
HM Treasury
36
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We last reported on the supported housing sector in England in November
Government response. The government will implement the provisions of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act with a target implementation date of Summer 2026, following a consultation that was published on 20 February 2025.
HM Treasury
37
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We asked MHCLG what progress it had made in implementing the Act. It replied that it would issue a consultation on the regulations and a licensing scheme for supported housing landlords early in 2025. It would seek to make the regulations following on from that consultation, and implement the scheme …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation, having published a consultation on 20 February 2025 on the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act's implementation, including a licensing regime and national standards, with a target implementation date of Summer 2026.
HM Treasury
38
Recommendation
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Accepted
We suggested that the licensing schemes that local authorities were considering would turn out to be very different from each other, unless there was a clear standard to be followed. We were concerned about evidence that, in the absence of such a standard, some local authorities were already making decisions …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and has published a consultation on 20 February 2025, which includes proposals for a locally led licensing regime and National Supported Housing Standards, aiming for implementation by Summer 2026.
HM Treasury