Thank you to those constituents who have contacted me about homelessness. I agree with Crisis, homelessness levels are high and too many families are living in temporary accommodation and this can have a devastating impact on those involved. I am determined that we must address this issue and deliver long term solutions.

I welcome that the Government has increased funding for homelessness services by £233 million, bringing the total to nearly £1 billion. The 2025 Spending Review protected that level of investment until 2028-29 and provides £100 million of additional funding for services from the transformation fund.

As part of this investment, the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant is providing more than £185 million to local authorities across England in 2025/26. The grant gives local authorities the flexibility to determine the most suitable rough sleeping services for their areas, which includes funding accommodation that is required to meet local need.

I was elected on a manifesto that promised to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. This will be vital to tackling homelessness. For this reason, I was pleased to note the £39 billion announced at the Spending Review for the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme. This represents the biggest long-term investment in social and affordable housing in recent memory and will help to deliver approximately 300,000 social and affordable homes by 2036. The goal is that 60% of the homes the programme provides will be for social rent.

I support the Government’s work to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including by abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters from being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

The Government recognises the importance of tackling this problem and, thank you once again for contacting me.

Best wishes

Rt Hon Hilary Benn
MP for Leeds South
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland