Housing, Communities and Local Government

On 31 January, the annual rough sleeping statistics were published and showed a welcome 2% reduction in the number of rough sleepers.

These figures also showed that the 83 local authority areas that were part of the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) had seen a 23% reduction in rough sleeping. It has come to our attention that the percentage decrease stated should have referred to 19% rather than 23%. The underlying figures remain unchanged, as does the national 2% reduction. The updated statistics release is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018.

The figures continue to demonstrate that the Rough Sleeping Initiative has had a significant impact on the number of people sleeping rough and is working. That is why we announced a further £45 million for the Rough Sleeping Initiative in 2019-20 as part of the Rough Sleeping strategy. Eleven million pounds of this funding has been set aside for areas that were not part of the initial work of the Rough Sleeping Initiative so that we can build on this work to make sure we continue to support more people off the streets and into safe and secure accommodation.

The comprehensive process for gathering these statistics was, like previous years, run by Homeless Link, the national membership charity for homeless organisations. Local authorities hold a multi-agency meeting to decide whether to count or estimate rough sleepers in their area and when the chosen date for deciding this figure will be. They are responsible for choosing the method that will most accurately reflect the number of people sleeping rough in their area on a single night. All rough sleeping returns submitted by local authorities are then independently verified or validated by Homeless Link to ensure they are robust. Hundreds of volunteers from homelessness sector organisations as well as local authority staff and people from local communities are involved in this process.

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Last October, I launched the Supporting Families Against Youth Crime fund to build on the troubled families programme’s proven track record of working with vulnerable families.

This new fund will allow local areas to put a greater focus on working with young people vulnerable to the devastating risks of serious violence. Increasing knife crime, particularly among young people, has been a worrying trend. This fund will bring together keyworkers, community groups, teachers and other professionals to intervene earlier to help stop young people from becoming drawn into gang crime, serious violence and entering the youth justice system.

I am pleased to announce that, in response to the quality of the bids we received, I have decided to increase the fund from £5 million to £9.8 million, which will fund projects in 21 areas across the country, including 10 in London.

The projects receiving funding include those focused on working with children before they make the important transition from primary to secondary school as this is a time when children are particularly vulnerable to becoming involved in crime. Other projects will work with smaller groups of young people already at high risk and carry out in-depth work with parents, carers and professionals to help them understand the risk factors and the dangers of their children being exposed to gang culture.

Many young people across the country are vulnerable to serious violence and youth crime and have experienced childhood trauma which has affected their mental health, resilience, confidence and decision making. For that reason, I am also making workforce development funding available to all other authorities delivering the troubled families programme to contribute to training staff in trauma-informed approaches, emotional coaching and non-violent resolution practices which will better enable them to identify and support these young people.