We welcome the Government’s decision to increase homelessness funding for 2025/26, including the £192.9 million uplift to the Homelessness Prevention Grant (HPG). However, the decision to ringfence 49% of HPG funding for activities to prevent and relieve homelessness may be a detrimental, one-size-fits-all approach towards the pressures facing some local authorities. The ringfence may leave a gap in the funding of those councils which rely heavily on the HPG to fund temporary accommodation, a...

We welcome the Government’s decision to increase homelessness funding for 2025/26, including the £192.9 million uplift to the Homelessness Prevention Grant (HPG). However, the decision to ringfence 49% of HPG funding for activities to prevent and relieve homelessness may be a detrimental, one-size-fits-all approach towards the pressures facing some local authorities. The ringfence may leave a gap in the funding of those councils which rely heavily on the HPG to fund temporary accommodation, at a time when local authorities are facing acute financial pressures. (Conclusion, Paragraph 87) Type: conclusion | Number: 20 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: The Government currently spends around £34 billion annually on housing support including around £12 billion in the private rented sector. Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates, which set the maximum level of support in the private rented sector, were last increased in April 2024 costing approximately