£1bn funding boost for councils to tackle homelessness
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Councils will receive a cash injection of nearly £1bn next year to tackle homelessness in England, Angela Rayner has announced. The deputy prime minister and housing secretary said 160,000 children faced spending Christmas without a regular home due to failures in the system and vowed to "break the cycle of spiralling homelessness and get back on track to ending it for good".
The funding, described by Ms Rayner as the "largest-ever" investment and a "turning point", will help councils intervene early to stop households becoming homeless, including through mediation with landlords to prevent eviction. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the money could also be used on services that prioritise access to permanent social housing for people with a history of repeat homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse.
Politics latest: Waspi compensation decision 'may be as big a political blunder as the winter fuel cut'. The latest statistics show that homelessness, which includes people living in temporary accommodation, is at record levels, with 123,100 households in England in temporary accommodation in the three months to the end of June.
The figure marks an increase of 16.3% on the same period the previous year. Children living in 'temporary' accommodation for more than five years, investigation reveals. Prince William serves Christmas lunch at The Passage homeless shelter he visited with Diana.
