New Cash Lifeline for West Midlands to turn the tide on homelessness

More people across the West Midlands will be prevented from becoming homeless with the largest-ever investment in homelessness prevention services, as part of a nearly £1 billion government package to tackle, reduce and prevent homelessness and rough sleeping across the region.

Over £60.3 million, an increase of over £13.4 million from this year, is being pumped into councils in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire to help break the endless cycle of spiraling homelessness.  

This will see more resources for workers on the frontline who provide essential services to get rough sleepers off the street and into secure housing as well as seeing more homeless families out of temporary accommodation.

Local councils will now be better equipped to step in early to stop households becoming homeless in the first place. This includes mediation with landlords or families to prevent evictions, help find new homes, and deposits to access private renting.  

These areas can also choose to channel resources into services including Housing First, which prioritises access to secure housing for people with histories of repeat homelessness and multiple disadvantage including drug and alcohol abuse. This will secure critical rough sleeping outreach staff and accommodation pathways off the street, as well as provide specialist services to help address substance abuse and offer life skills to widen employment opportunities. 

With the worst housing crisis in living memory, over 1,660 homeless families in the West Midlands are living in B&B or nightly-let accommodation, and the use of this emergency accommodation has increased over the last few years. Many of these places lack basic facilities, leaving parents struggling to cook healthy meals for their children while councils bear the mounting financial strain.  

Successive years of failure to invest in West Midlands preventative services has seen far too many homeless in temporary accommodation for far too long, with over 8,100 households including more than 14,700 children across the region.  

Minister for Homelessness, Rushanara Ali said:  

We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory that has left over 6,300 families in the West Midlands trapped in temporary accommodation with no end in sight and we continue to see devastating numbers of people sleeping rough in our towns and cities. 

This is the dire legacy we face as a government, and we are fully determined to take immediate action in the West Midlands and beyond. This funding will not only support local councils delivering vital frontline services but also pave the way for our long-term plan to get us back on track to end homelessness once and for all.”  

A new dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, brings together ministers from across government to develop a long-term strategy, working with the West Midlands Mayor and local councils, to get back on track to ending homelessness for good.  

Next’s year funding for the West Midlands builds on the first steps in the government’s long-term plan to tackle, reduce and prevent homelessness. The full regional breakdown of new funding includes the following:  

  • Over £42 million for the Homelessness Prevention Grant, supporting councils including , Birmingham, Dudley, Coventry and Wolverhampton to prevent homelessness and provide temporary accommodation where required for families who recently became homeless, for example, through eviction or fleeing domestic violence.  
  • Around £10.9 million for the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant, consolidating the main rough sleeping and single homelessness focused grants into a single pot of money. This means London boroughs can prioritise prevention work and provide warm beds and shelter for people at risk, or experiencing, rough sleeping. 
  • Over £2.3 million for the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme, providing ongoing support costs across Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin and the wider region to help rough sleepers into longer term accommodation alongside specialist staff supporting their mental health and substance abuse problems to pave the way for job opportunities.  
  • Over £4.5 million for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant to continue supporting evidence-based drug and alcohol treatment and provide wrap-around support staff in areas such as Coventry, Birmingham and Worcester. 
  • £570,000 for Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots, to work with selected areas with the highest use of Bed and Breakfast accommodation for homeless families to put in place specialised plans to reduce the use of emergency accommodation, including B&Bs.  

This funding is just one element of the government’s Plan for Change to fix the housing crisis, strengthen protections and rights for tenants, and deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.  

Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, one of the leading causes of homelessness, will be abolished as part of the landmark Renters’ Rights Bill. This will give greater security to new and existing tenancies and empower tenants to rightly challenge poor conditions.  

Last week the government published a new growth focused National Planning Policy Framework, imposing new, mandatory housing targets for the West Midlands to deliver nearly 30,000 homes every year. This is alongside councils receiving greater powers to build more social homes and public services.

The government is also bringing forward overdue reforms to the Right to Buy scheme to reverse the decline in much needed council housing and better protect existing housing stock. Decisive action has already been taken to reduce maximum discounts and allow councils to retain all receipts from sales to scale up delivery to meet future housing need.  

Councils already have greater flexibility to use Right to Buy receipts to build and buy more homes as well as an additional £450 million to secure and create homes for families at risk of homelessness.  

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