'Government must give councils cash to make homelessness reforms a success'

Reforms aimed at reducing homelessness require the Government to commit to providing millions of pounds if they are to succeed, former housing ministers have insisted.

Conservative MP Mark Prisk and Labour's John Healey welcomed measures requiring councils to do more to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.

But the pair urged ministers to offer extra cash to allow local authorities to fulfil their new responsibilities.

Tory MP Bob Blackman also warned the current rules around who is accepted as homeless are "a national disgrace" as he brought forward his Homelessness Reduction Bill.

His draft legislation requires local authorities to provide new homelessness services to all those affected - not just those who are protected under existing legislation.

It would place a duty on councils to help eligible people at risk of homelessness to secure accommodation 56 days before they are threatened with homelessness.

Those who do find themselves homeless would be given support for 56 days to find somewhere to live.

The Government has indicated it will support the Private Member's Bill, which would require millions of pounds of extra funding for councils to help deal with extra cases.

Speaking during the Bill's second reading, former minister Mr Prisk said: "I think this Bill offers a great opportunity to reduce but not remove homelessness.

"I think we all know and understand that it is an important opportunity - an opportunity to focus on prevention, an opportunity to raise the standards of advice and support across the country, and it's an opportunity to ensure that more people get help sooner.

"In that sense I think the Bill offers real hope.

"But I just make one rider if I can, and from the mood music I think there may be a good answer on this, I have to say to the minister that we can only hope for that progress if the Government plays its part.

"Now, it is fantastic that the ministers have stepped up to the plate and they're backing the Bill.

"But I think it'll also be the case that there will be the need, when required, for additional funding for many councils in order for them to fulfil that commitment."

Shadow housing secretary Mr Healey welcomed the measures as a "good first step" as he warned that councils are struggling with an "ever-increasing workload and ever-decreasing range of housing options".

He added: "If the Government is serious about this Bill and if ministers mean what they say about homelessness, then they must do two things - fund the costs of the extra duties in this Bill in full, and tackle the causes of the growing homelessness crisis in this country.

"Those will be the two tests that we on this side hold the Government hard to account."

Introducing his Bill, Mr Blackman (Harrow East) said: "If you are priority homeless, then the local authority will house you, probably in emergency accommodation, which is expensive to the local authority and not very suitable for the people who have to be housed.

"The non-priority homeless are told go out, sleep on the streets, sleep on a park bench or in a doorway, and you may be picked up by a charity under the No Second Night Out programme.

"That, to me, is an absolute national disgrace.

"At a time when we have employment at the highest level ever, a relatively low level of unemployment, a single person sleeping rough on our streets is a national disgrace - and we must combat it."

MPs heard that rough sleeping has doubled since 2010, while homelessness applications to councils were up by 26% over the same timeframe.

But councils were often telling homelessness applicants to come back once they had been evicted, or giving priority to those with drug or alcohol problems, Mr Blackman said.

He said investment in preventing homelessness would save money for the public purse in the long term.

Mr Blackman added that his Bill included specific priorities to help care leavers and those who have served in the armed forces, as well as requiring local authorities check the standards of any private sector accommodation before it is used to house people.

Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas and Labour's Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) raised concerns about cuts to overall local authority funding, saying this was preventing councils from tackling the causes of homelessness.

Labour's Clive Betts, chairman of the Communities and Local Government Committee, said: "We know that this Bill - admirable though it is and has support across the House - will, in the end, not deal with the fundamental problem of the housing crisis in this country.

"There is a shortage of housing caused by decades of not building enough homes from governments of all political persuasions."

Mr Betts said the evidence points to the need for more social housing to help deal with homelessness, adding it is "hopeful" the Government appears to be recognising this in recent remarks.