Written question WQ88093

Our Ending Homelessness Action Plan sets out our medium to long term goal to reduce our dependency on temporary accommodation as part of our transformational shift to a rapid rehousing approach. This is an all-age plan and includes people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. It recognises the importance of targeted prevention for specific groups, including children and young people, and we are working with public and third sector organisations to take forward the actions set out in the plan.

Prevention remains our focus and our priority is to reduce the flow of people needing temporary accommodation. As part of the £210m-plus we are investing in homelessness prevention and housing support services this year, £6m is to provide local authorities with a Discretionary Homelessness Prevention Fund. This is an invest to save fund and can be used flexibly by local authorities to support people to remain in their own home or quickly relieve homelessness, including helping with rent arrears, rent guarantees and other household bills.

We are also supporting local authorities with move-on from temporary accommodation. In July 2022, we established a Transitional Accommodation Capital Programme (TACP) to assist people to move on from temporary accommodation into longer-term provision. We have invested £76m to deliver 936 additional properties and homes between 2022-23 and 2023-24.