This article was first published on the Batchelor’s Solicitors website prior to its merger with Birketts.
A new report has urged the Government to help ease the homelessness crisis by setting aside extra funding to meet social housing development targets.
The Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping was set up to investigate how the emergency response to supporting homeless people during the Covid-19 pandemic, could be sustained.
In its newly published report, A New Way of Working: Ending Rough Sleeping Together – Progress Report September 2022, the Commission outlines the progress made in the past year and makes a number of new recommendations.
Amongst its proposals, is a recommendation for the Government to set aside more funding from the Right to Buy scheme to see the creation of additional social rented homes, to support the sector’s target of 90,000 new-builds a year.
Chair of the Commission, Lord Kerslake, said that although there had been “much progress and excellent work” in the past two years, the current cost of living crisis was creating additional strains with urgent action needed to avoid new “catastrophic” levels of homelessness.
“We once again need to see the strong, decisive leadership from the Government we did during ‘Everyone In’, backed by resources and funding,” said Lord Kerslake.
“But this time the focus must be two-pronged. It is no longer just about getting people off the streets; it is about ensuring people who are currently at risk of homelessness don’t end up on them.
“Failure to act could see this become a homelessness as well as an economic crisis and the results could be catastrophic, with all the good achieved in reducing street homelessness since the pandemic lost, and any hope of the Government meeting its manifesto pledge to end rough sleeping by 2024 gone.”
The Commission’s authors are also urging reforms to the upcoming Planning Bill to allow local authorities ‘financing flexibilities’ so that more social housing can be developed.
Furthermore, the report recommends that the Regulator should scrutinise housing associations more carefully to ensure that evictions and abandonments are minimised and, where eviction is deemed to be unavoidable, tenants should not be left homeless.
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The content of this article is for general information only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. If you require any further information in relation to this article please contact the author in the first instance. Law covered as at January 2023.