Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Detail how MHCLG's cross-government homelessness strategy will consolidate funding and improve coordination.
Conclusion
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 cross-government strategy be published. The Government agreed with this recommendation and said it would be implemented by July 2018. In the continued absence of such a strategy, the work of government departments can lack coordination. For example, there are multiple funding streams that can be used to tackle homelessness, which can be challenging for local authorities to administer. And we are dismayed to hear that local authorities looking to acquire temporary accommodation for homeless households still sometimes find that the Home Office has outbid them to accommodate asylum seekers in the area. The Home Office says it will now withdraw its interest if it hears that a local authority is seeking to acquire the same accommodation. The Government has now created an inter-ministerial group on homelessness, whose officials group is chaired by MHCLG. While it 6 expects to produce a strategy in 2025, we are unclear how this arrangement will achieve results that the existing cross-government boards with a remit relevant to homelessness have failed to achieve. recommendation In its Treasury Minute response, MHCLG should provide the Committee with further details of how its proposed cross-government homelessness strategy will generate practical improvements, including through: a. a consolidation of the funding to tackle homelessness into far fewer streams; b. eliminating competition between local authorities and the Home Office for temporary accommodation; and c. learning appropriate lessons from the UK devolved administrations. d. implementing the exemption from the local connection or residency test for all veterans, care leavers under 25 years,
Government Response Summary
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 bring forward further changes for victims of domestic abuse and care leavers under 25.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. policy in England where appropriate. In particular, the government has been monitoring the implementation and impact of reforms to the private rented sector in Scotland, to inform its own Renters Rights Bill. Ministers and officials engage regularly with their counterparts in the devolved administrations to discuss a range of issues, including tackling homelessness, and MHCLG will engage with all of the devolved administrations prior to publication of the homelessness strategy. 5d. PAC recommendation: • …. implementing the exemption from the local connection or residency test for all veterans, care leavers under 25 years, and victims of domestic abuse, while mitigating the impact for other groups. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. veterans in housing need and improve access to social housing for young care leavers and victims of domestic abuse. On 18 December 2024, Regulations came into force to exempt all former members of the regular armed forces from any local connection tests applied by local authorities in England. Prior to this, only veterans who had left the armed forces within the preceding 5 years were exempt from any local connection test. The new regulations ensure that no veteran of the regular armed forces will need to meet a local connection test for social housing regardless of when they last served. MHCLG will bring forward further changes to social housing allocations regulations in due course to exempt victims of domestic abuse and care leaves under 25 from local connection and residency tests. This will remove a potential qualification barrier to vulnerable groups accessing social housing. Local authorities will continue to be able to design their own allocation schemes, within the legal framework set by government, in a way that best meets local needs. This includes prioritising those most in housing need such as those who are homeless, in overcrowded housing or who need to move for medical or welfare reasons.