Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
The Department has provided a number of different funding streams to local authorities to cover...
Conclusion
The Department has provided a number of different funding streams to local authorities to cover the pandemic response for people sleeping rough, but many are short-term and reactive, and the Department does not have a cohesive long- term funding plan for its commitment to end rough sleeping. Local authorities expect to spend £192 million on rehousing people sleeping rough by the end of March 2021. The Department provided £4.6 billion between March and October 2020 to cover additional costs resulting from the COVID-19 response, but rough sleeping is only one of a number of priorities covered by this un-ringfenced funding. The Department also brought forward and augmented existing funding, with a total of £700 million available to local authorities for tackling homelessness in 2020–21. More recent funding announcements have seen a series of smaller amounts allocated as a reaction to immediate priorities, rather than to address a more strategic long- term plan, which would provide more certainty to the many small organisations in the voluntary sector working with people sleeping rough. These groups also face high levels of bureaucracy when applying for relatively small ad-hoc grants. Recommendation: To inform the review of its strategy, the Department should reassess the level of funding required to meet its target of ending rough sleeping and align all individual streams of funding for tackling rough sleeping to this end. This should address the importance of multi-year funding certainty for local authorities and the voluntary sector. In doing so, it should state how it will assess the long-term value for money of its spending on rough sleeping and COVID-19: housing people sleeping rough 7 homelessness, focusing on interventions which do most to reduce the long-term public costs associated with both rough sleeping and housing people in temporary accommodation.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Winter 2021 4.2 This year alone the department have committed over £750 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. In responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the department has sought to make sure that local authorities have the resources they require to support rough sleepers as the pandemic has evolved. That has meant that there have been more short-term funding streams in 2020/21 than usual. However, the department recognises the value of streamlining funding streams where possible to improve efficiency and minimise burdens on local authorities and voluntary sector partners. The department has, for example, combined the Flexible Homelessness Support Grant and the Homelessness Reduction Grant into one funding stream in 2022 to help local authorities manage local homelessness pressures: The Homelessness Prevention Grant. Funding for the Rough Sleeping Initiative in 2021 includes funding to support rough sleepers from the pandemic and throughout the winter, consolidating several funding streams. 4.3 The department will work across government to consider the support that is required to end rough sleeping, including financial and non-financial aspects. Decisions on future funding will be a matter for the 2021 Spending Review, and this will consider the long-term value for money of the departments spending. 4.4 The department’s evaluation programme continues to assess the impacts of homelessness and rough sleeping policy, building on the high-quality evaluations that have been delivered over the last few years, such as the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) impact evaluation. The Rough Sleeping Questionnaire has allowed for a more robust approach to considering how these impacts relate to social outcomes, by giving an insight into the service use and individual and social harms associated with sleeping rough. Over the medium term, the use of linked administrative data will give new insight into how people sleeping rough interact with public services. The department is committed to using these tools and insights to improve the department’s assessments of value for money in the appraisal and evaluation of its policies.