Translating ambition on rough sleeping into action

The Prime Minister has made clear that tackling rough sleeping is a moral mission for his Government. In July, the Government announced £442m to help people off the streets, funding emergency accommodation, outreach services, ongoing wraparound support and settled accommodation. This week, the Budget committed a further £432m to provide continuity of funding, although this will not cover the wider costs of temporary accommodation.I recently heard Angela Rayner speak at an event and it was refreshing to hear the depth of her commitment to tackling homelessness. More striking was her account of how regularly the PM checks in with her on progress. It was a reminder that this is a personal priority for the PM.At the same time, there is a much bigger question about the growing crisis in temporary accommodation which now affects 176,000 children across England and places considerable financial pressure on local authorities.The Office for Budget Responsibility warns that the Government's focus on reducing rough sleeping and improving standards in temporary accommodation is ‘likely to increase pressure on local authority spending in this area'.Improving standards in temporary accommodation is important, but the more fundamental challenge is tackling the underlying pressures driving demand in the first place.The Government has announced an additional £1.5bn for the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, on top of the £39bn already committed. It has also announced a range of funding flexibilities that could enable strategic authorities in particular to borrow to unlock housing development.These measures could help increase housing supply over the medium term, easing some of the pressures on temporary accommodation, but they are not a short-term solution. Two things that stood out most for me are one announcement in the Budget and the other conspicuous by its absence.The first is a change to departmental spending rules and in particular the establishment of a Prevention Departmental Expenditure Limit (PDEL). From next year's Spending Review, this will ringfence funding for preventative interventions, protect spending that reduces demand for public services rather than managing the consequences.There have already been moves in this direction but encouraging prevention while managing rising demand is difficult. Much of the Homelessness Prevention Grant (HPG), for example, was being used by local authorities to meet the ongoing costs of temporary accommodation, rather than preventing homelessness.The Government subsequently introduced a requirement for 49% of the grant to be spent on prevention.Despite the sensible rationale, ringfencing more of the HPG for prevention has required authorities to draw on their general fund to meet temporary accommodation costs. The risk is that PDEL could replicate this problem on a much larger scale: protecting preventative spending on paper while shifting financial pressures elsewhere. If that happens, it would also sit uneasily with the Government's wider ambition to give local authorities greater financial autonomy.Homelessness is a prime example of where strategic authorities could add real value, particularly through their purchasing power, access to capital and ability to co-ordinate activity across wider geographies. But local authorities should not simply wait for strategic authorities to define their role. They should be actively shaping their priorities and directing their efforts towards the challenges where collaboration could make the greatest difference.The second was conspicuously absent from the Budget: a clear theory of change, or roadmap, for reducing the number of households reliant on temporary accommodation. What is needed is a muscular, cross-government effort to mobilise the state, its assets and access to capital, alongside wider public service reform, to drive down the historically high numbers.Although the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its National Plan to End Homelessness less than 12 months ago, there is a need to build on that work. I am hopeful the Treasury-led Value for Money Homelessness Review, now under way, will provide some of the necessary momentum.As the Government's approach to public service reform becomes clearer over the coming months, there must be a stronger focus on the role strategic authorities can play in helping local authorities tackle costly, poor-quality temporary accommodation. For reasons I struggle to understand, local authorities have been reluctant to articulate how they expect strategic authorities to help address the public service challenges they face.Homelessness is a prime example of where strategic authorities could add real value, particularly through their purchasing power, access to capital and ability to co-ordinate activity across wider geographies. But local authorities should not simply wait for strategic authorities to define their role. They should be actively shaping their priorities and directing their efforts towards the challenges where collaboration could make the greatest difference.The Budget is a welcome starting point, but attention must now turn to shaping the forthcoming command paper on Rewiring the State and the local government finance settlement. Both will be critical tests of whether the Government can translate its ambition to tackle rough sleeping into meaningful action. It must also bring the same political urgency, ambition and cross-government effort to tackling the growing crisis in temporary accommodation.Jack Shaw is director of Groundwork Research

Title

ROUGH SLEEPING

Translating ambition on rough sleeping into action

By Jack Shaw | 03 November 2026

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