The Labour party released its manifesto this morning, joining the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green parties in making clear their commitments to the public. They all discuss tackling homelessness to some extent, but is it enough? This is our round up.
With rough sleeping increasing by 27% in a year, record numbers in temporary accommodation and almost 80,000 households homeless and at risk of it in the last quarter, measures to end this crisis must be priority commitments for all candidates in this general election.
Ending homelessness is not a fringe issue – in fact, it’s quite the opposite. It’s a complex issue which is relevant to policy areas across government, including; Housing, Planning, Health, Welfare, Employment, the Economy, Criminal Justice and Asylum. This is reflected in St Mungo’s six priorities for a new government and it is therefore something which all parties should be able to get behind.
We were pleased that all of the major parties have included at least one reference to working to tackle homelessness or rough sleeping in their manifestos. It is encouraging that this has been recognised.
However, recognition is not enough to tackle the scale of the challenge. Clear and assertive action with targeted policy decisions must be taken by the next government to end homelessness for good. As the scale of the crisis continues to grow, a new government must invest and renew its efforts to tackling rising homelessness.
We are particularly encouraged where there has been commitment to policies in manifestos which will have a clear impact in ending homelessness.
We are encouraged by measures set out in the Liberal Democrat and Green manifestos which support an ambitious social housing building programme which commits to the sector recommended target of building at least 90,000 social rented homes per year.
We were pleased with Labour’s commitment to develop a new cross-government strategy, to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness. We know that the causes and consequences of homelessness are complex and will require all levels of government and different departments to work together to fix this crisis. Our work with the Kerslake Commission has highlighted the huge benefits of cross-sector and government working.
And we were also glad to see that all major parties are committed to protecting renters. Reforms to protect private renters from homelessness have been long called for.
St Mungo’s has expertise in delivering services for people in our communities who need us the most. And through our clients we know which areas need to be prioritised by a new government to end homelessness.
We want to work with a new government and all parties to solve this crisis and so we are asking candidates to support our six priorities for ending homelessness.
- Extend and uplift funding to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness.
- Protect renters from homelessness.
- Reform practices to prevent homelessness from government institutions.
- Align benefits to help people into housing and remove disincentives to work.
- Support an integrated approach to homelessness, addressing unmet health needs.
- Boost the delivery of affordable and social housing for the long-term.
