Homelessness and Rough Sleeping: Additional Funding 2025-26

I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has allocated £84 million in additional funding across four homelessness and rough sleeping grants for 2025-26:

£69.9 million uplift to the rough sleeping prevention and recovery grant, bringing the total funding for this grant to £255.5 million. Up to £12.8 million of this funding uplift is being awarded to councils specifically to deliver and add value to partnerships and services with voluntary, community and faith sector organisations. This additional funding has been made available to 62 local authorities experiencing the greatest rough sleeping pressures, alongside 12 strategic authorities and five London sub-regions. The funding will support a range of services, including for those experiencing long-term rough sleeping, and will enable strategic authorities to put greater emphasis on integrated efforts to end rough sleeping across their regions. It will also support interventions to prevent rough sleeping for those transitioning from the asylum estate.

£10.9 million on supporting children experiencing homelessness. This will be delivered as an uplift to the homelessness prevention grant, bringing total funding for this grant to £644.14 million. This funding has been awarded to 61 local authorities with the highest numbers of children in temporary accommodation, to increase access to support and services for families and make a tangible impact on their quality of life while they remain in need. This will deliver positive benefits for education and health outcomes by funding interventions such as school travel, uniform and equipment, and the provision of specialist support roles.

£3 million uplift for the rough sleeping drug and alcohol treatment programme, bringing the total funding for this grant to £61.7 million. We are allocating additional funding to the rough sleeping drug and alcohol treatment component of the drug and alcohol treatment and recovery improvement grant, known as DATRIG, to provide evidence-based drug and alcohol treatment and wraparound support for people sleeping rough or at risk of sleeping rough, including those with co-occurring mental health needs. This will allow continued service delivery in 83 local authorities.

£200,000 uplift for the voluntary, community and frontline sector grant, bringing total funding for this grant to £3.7 million. This additional funding will support work to develop innovative initiatives within the faith and non-commissioned sector to support those in need.

The Government are committed to getting us back on track to ending homelessness. The additional funding allocated across these grants will enable councils, strategic authorities and the wider sector to support those who are most vulnerable in society, and, ultimately, will help to save lives.

[HCWS950]