Homelessness is a tragedy in our Country and needs addressing

Homelessness is a tragedy in our Country and needs addressing Britain is too decent and too well off to put up with the scandal of homelessness. But to our national shame, tonight and every night thousands of people will sleep in doorways and on park benches for want of a place to stay. Many thousands more will be stuck in hostels or temporary accommodation or ‘sofa-surfing’ with friends. Increasing homelessness is the most visible sign of Conservative Ministers’ seven years of failure on housing. In the last six years, the number of people sleeping rough on our streets has more than doubled, the number of homeless households has risen by almost half to nearly 60,000, and this year well over 120,000 children are without a home. The hard truth for Conservative Ministers is that their decisions have caused this crisis: record low levels of new affordable rented housing, lack of action to help private renters and deep cuts to housing benefit and charity funding. It is one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour government that we reduced rough sleeping by around three-quarters and managed an unprecedented decline in statutory homelessness. We set out a comprehensive intervention plan, ground-breaking legislation, fresh investment, and a target to cut rough sleeping by two-thirds – delivered a year early. The next Labour government will go further and end rough sleeping for good. We will establish a Prime Minister-led taskforce on ending rough sleeping by the end of the next Parliament, making the links between housing, health, social security and work. As a first step we will overhaul the way we measure rough sleeping so that we know how many people are sleeping rough and more about how we help them. You can’t help people who are homeless if you won’t provide the homes so we’ll transform our capacity to get people off the streets for good by making available at least 4,000 new homes for people with a history or rough sleeping. We’ll explore how this might develop into a ‘housing first’ approach to provide a long-term solution to those rough sleepers with complex needs. We will also take action to tackle the wider causes of homelessness beyond rough sleeping. We will halt the government’s plans to change the way supported and sheltered housing is funded which charities, housing associations and councils all say will lead to the closure of homelessness hostels and other vital housing for some of the most vulnerable people in our country. We’ll work with the housing sector to bring forward a new plan to fund this vital housing adequately for the long-term. We will protect the housing cost element of Universal Credit for 18-21 year olds which the Conservatives have cut, and we will undertake a review of the adequacy of support for housing costs through the social security system given the huge reductions in the housing safety net over the last seven years. We will build thousands more affordable homes to rent, to give those on low incomes more options for a place to stay. And with the failure of a private rented tenancy now being the single most common cause of homelessness, our plans to increase security for private renters with predictable rent rises will help people remain in their homes. I am grateful for every opportunity to listen to you views and to set out my own position to you. Ultimately, this General Election is a choice between a Labour Party who will stand up for the many and a Conservative Party which only looks after the privileged few, and I hope you will consider putting your trust in me, and in Labour