Recommendation 13

As of January 2021, local authorities said they were expecting to spend an extra £192 million in the 2020–21 financial year, in respect of additional spending on homelessness and rough sleeping as a result of the pandemic.46 The Department considers that it has reimbursed local authorities for the costs paid out so far, with funding provided as part of wider support to local government and their finances over the past year.47 As of December 2020, the Department had distributed £4.6 billion in un-ringfenced funding to local authorities to cover all of their additional spending related to the pandemic, although we note that rough sleeping is just one among several other priorities to be covered by this funding.48