To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to (a) increase the availability of emergency housing and (b) build more social rent homes.
Answered on
24 February 2025
This government is taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.
We have committed £500m to the third round of the Local Authority Housing Fund to enable local authorities to obtain better quality temporary accommodation.
We have allocated an additional £30 million for local authorities in England to provide support in safe accommodation for victims of domestic abuse and their children who need to flee their homes, bringing the total to £160 million in 2025/26.
We have made changes to the Right to Buy scheme, allowing local authorities to retain 100% of the receipts generated by Right to Buy sales and have consulted on a new five-year social housing rent settlement to provide the sector with the certainty it needs to invest in new social and affordable housing.
In October 2024, we announced an immediate one-year cash injection of £500 million to the 2021-2026 Affordable Homes Programme and we announced a further £300m boost on 12 February.
We will set out details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for Social Rent.