Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
4th Report - Tackling homelessness
Published 24 Jan 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Tackling homelessness All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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 challenged MHCLG on whether the inter- ministerial group will remove the need for the 15 cross-government boards 34 HM Treasury, Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fourth to the Eleventh reports from Session 2017–19, Cm 9575, March 2018; C&AG’s Report, paras 2.12, 2.13 35 TH0015 36 TH0020 37 TH0021 16 whose work is relevant to homelessness. It explained that the boards will still have a role in considering the main issues within their remit, such as asylum accommodation or mental health. But the inter-ministerial group is the place where all the work across government that is specifically focused on homelessness will come together.38
From: Public Accounts Committee, 4th Report - Tackling homelessness (HC 352), 24 January 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fourth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fourth report from Session 2024-25
Published 6 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations on tackling homelessness, giving target implementation dates ranging from April 2025 to Summer 2026 and noting that some are already implemented.
- On temporary accommodation, the government agrees with the recommendation and reports it as implemented: the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots, backed by £5 million (later £8 million in total), work with 20 local authorities with the highest use of B&B accommodation.
- On consolidating funding, MHCLG will merge its main rough sleeping and single homelessness grants into a single grant for 2025-26, and will "explore options" for aligning Homelessness Prevention Grant funding with rough sleeping funding. It will "consider whether and how" to consolidate homelessness grants into the Local Government Finance Settlement.
- On local connection tests, regulations in force since 18 December 2024 exempt all former regular armed forces members. MHCLG will bring forward changes for domestic abuse victims and care leavers under 25 "in due course".
- On supported housing, the government agrees, with a target date of Summer 2026. A 12-week consultation published on 20 February 2025 covers a licensing regime and National Supported Housing Standards, with a response to follow "as soon as possible".