The National Plan to End Homelessness has been launched today (11.12.25), and will support the most vulnerable people in our society, reports Gov.Uk.

Today, the government launches a bold new National Plan to End Homelessness to support the most vulnerable in our society to find their feet and improve their lives.  Unveiled today and backed by £3.5 billion of investment, this landmark strategy has been shaped by the voices of those who have experienced homelessness as well as those involved in the Inter-ministerial Group on Homelessness. As the coldest months of the year settle in and Christmas fast approaches, for many, the harsh reality of homelessness becomes harder than ever – whether for someone bedding down on the street, or children struggling in temporary accommodation. Currently a family is being made homeless or threatened with homelessness every five minutes.

The National Plan to End Homelessness has three key pledges to be achieved by the end of this parliament – to halve the number of long-term rough sleepers, end the unlawful use of B&Bs for families and prevent more households from becoming homeless in the first place. It will be underpinned by clear, ambitious goals for lasting change, including a duty on public services to work together to prevent homelessness, a boost to the supply of good-quality temporary homes, and £3.5 billion – a £1 billion funding boost over and above previous commitments – to support rough sleeping and support services. Today’s announcement follows the Royal Assent of the government’s landmark Renters’ Rights Act, which puts an end to Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions that can often contribute to households finding themselves homeless. Alongside this, the government is investing £39 billion in the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation, helping to give more people a secure roof over their head as part of our commitment to build 1.5 million homes.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: ”Homelessness is one of the most profound challenges we face as a society, because at the heart, it’s about people. Families deserve stability, children need a safe place to grow, and individuals simply want the dignity of a home. This strategy is shaped by the voices of those who’ve lived through homelessness and the frontline workers who fight tirelessly to prevent it. Through our new strategy we can build a future where homelessness is rare, brief, and not repeated. With record investment, new duties on public services, and a relentless focus on accountability, we will turn ambition into reality.”

Homelessness Minister Alison McGovern said:  ”Everyone deserves a roof over their head.  And for those experiencing the worst of homelessness right now – our children – they deserve a place to play and a bedroom to do their homework in. It’s our collective responsibility to make that a reality, for anyone at risk of homelessness, be it sofa-surfing or getting stuck on the streets. By working together including government, local leaders, charities, and communities, we can stop homelessness before it happens and ensure that when people do fall into crisis, support is swift and effective. The prize is big.  Right now, taxpayers are paying the price of failure, with temporary accommodation costs skyrocketing.  And the next generation of British young people can’t succeed without the space they need.  This strategy sets us on a better path – to save money and change lives.”

By the end of this Parliament, the National Plan to End Homelessness will:

• Increase the rate of prevention to protect thousands more households from homelessness. Central to this target is a proposed ‘Duty to Collaborate’, which will be brought forward in legislation for public bodies to work together to prevent homelessness. This builds on cross-government efforts to cut homelessness linked to prisons, social care and hospitals. This strategy sets clear targets on this issue for the first time, including halving the number who become homeless on their first night out of prison and ensuring that no eligible person is discharged to the street after a hospital stay. It also sets a clear long-term ambition that no one should be made homelessness from a public institution.
• Halve the number of people experiencing long-term rough sleeping. For too long, people who have spent years on the streets, often with the most complex needs, have been left with no help. This strategy rewires the system to focus support where it’s needed most. A new £124 million supported housing scheme has been launched to get over 2,500 people across England off the streets and into more stable housing as well as preventing those from getting to the streets in the first place. The Plan also includes a new £15m Long-Term Rough Sleeping Innovation Programme, which will help councils develop fresh solutions, alongside £37 million of funding for a new Ending Homelessness in Communities programme which will increase support and improve the vital services that are provided by the voluntary, community and faith sector at the frontline of this crisis.
• End the unlawful use of B&Bs for families. This will bring relief to the 2,070 households trapped beyond the six-week limit in unsuitable conditions – often in one room and no cooking facilities. The builds on the commitment in the recently published Child Poverty Strategy, which ensures mothers and newborn babies are not discharged from hospital into this B&B accommodation.

The plan will boost the supply of good-quality temporary homes, backed by £950 million through the Fourth Round of the Local Authority Housing Fund. Our expanded £30 million Emergency Accommodation Reduction Programme will also prevent poor quality emergency accommodation being used. The government will work to improve the quality and suitability of temporary accommodation, enforcing strong protections against poor housing conditions, including out-of-area placements.  An additional £50 million of in-year funding (25/26) is also to be allocated to local authorities through MHCLG’s Homelessness Prevention Grant. This funding is intended to focus on prevention, making sure individuals and households who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness are given the right help to stay in their homes.

Preventing homelessness is everyone’s responsibility and this strategy makes that clear. Every council will now publish a tailored action plan alongside their local homelessness strategy, including setting local targets on key outcomes, with targeted expert support for areas facing the greatest challenges. The government is also calling on Mayors to lead with ambition, backed by new funding to drive collaboration between councils, services, and partners. This is backed by a stripping away of bureaucracy, simplifying funding for councils and ending bidding processes so they can focus on spending money on meeting local needs.

To deliver lasting change, we’re launching a National Workforce Programme to equip frontline teams with essential training and expert advice. Progress will be tracked through national reports, overseen by the Inter-Ministerial Group, ensuring transparency, accountability, and momentum as we work together to end homelessness for good. This strategy is just part of the way government is supporting people to have a safe and secure roof over their head. Taken together, alongside the reforms to the private rented sector and drive to build the homes the country needs, the government is committed putting a stop to the threat of homelessness for families and individuals across the country.

A local landlord has been ordered to pay £14,000 after being prosecuted by Sefton Council for allowing tenants to live in dangerous conditions, reports MySefton News.

After pleading guilty to the charge of exposing his tenants to “the risk of serious harm” in September, Neil McCann appeared at Sefton Magistrates court in Bootle for sentencing last week.

Council officers inspected the property in Crosby, where Mr McCann lets four flats following a complaint from a tenant. This resulted in McCann being a served a schedule of works. However, a further inspection, in October 2024, showed the improvements had not been started and that conditions at the property had worsened.

The Council served a Prohibition Order in respect of one of the flats which had no electricity supply, no working smoke detectors and no front door. The council deemed there to be an imminent risk of serious harm to the health and safety of any occupier or visitor to that flat and as such the landlord should’ve prevented any person from occupying this flat with immediate effect.

Sefton Council served Mr McCann with an improvement notice for the remaining parts of the property. It advised the landlord to deal with identified hazards such as the cold conditions due to the lack of fixed heating, a lack of fire protection, damp and mould and structural collapse.

McCann had until early January 2025, to complete the work but a subsequent inspection that month found that and none of the works listed in the improvement notice had been carried out. Also, one of the flats was occupied despite being subject to a prohibition order.

The failure to implement the Improvement Notice and breach of a Prohibition Order meant the case was heard in court and led to Mr Mcann facing the £14,000 fine plus legal costs.

In February 2025, another Sefton landlord was fined £10,900 for failing to license a rented property after a successful prosecution by Sefton Council. And in December last year, fines totalling £45,000 were imposed on three housing management companies after the Council brought a number of prosecutions. These included managing or being in control of properties without the required Selective Licence.

Naccom members accommodated record 4,434 refugees and migrants in 2024-25 but could not house another 3,450, reports The Guardian.

Thousands of refugees are facing a growing homelessness crisis, according to a network of more than 100 organisations across the UK who say homelessness has more than doubled among refugees in the last two years. Naccom, the national charity of 140 frontline refugee and migrant organisations, blames the increase on “near-constant government policy changes” and the introduction of eVisas, which some refugees have not been able to activate in order to access vital services and support.

Network members were approached by at least 3,450 refugees and other migrants in 2024-25 whom they were unable to accommodate. They say this figure is likely to be a significant underestimate of the true picture. Members accommodated 4,434 homeless people, more than in any previous year since their records began in 2013, providing 672,807 nights of accommodation. There were 829 people sleeping rough at the point of accessing services, significantly higher than the 2022-23 figure of 378. Among those who were housed, 2,008 were refugees, a 106% increase on 2022-23.

Bridget Young, the Naccom director, said: “Our survey findings paint a bleak picture of a continuing crisis with no end in sight. Successive governments have expanded the hostile environment through constant, reactive policy changes that make it easier for people to fall into destitution and homelessness and harder to find a way out. The survey period coincided with a terrifying summer of rioting organised by the far right and anti-immigration sentiment has continued to creep into mainstream politics, encapsulated by recent policy announcements that are set to increase homelessness and destitution further.”

In one recent case, Asylum Welcome, a refugee charity in Oxfordshire, was asked for accommodation support for 48 newly recognised refugees who had been evicted from asylum accommodation in a single month, with many left sleeping rough. For those the charity was unable to find accommodation for, it could offer only a sleeping bag. Some who have been sleeping rough faced assault and had their few belongings trashed by a few individuals supporting anti-immigrant protests, according to the charity.

In a separate development, a Home Office pilot that began in December 2024 extending the move-on period for new refugees from 28 days to 56 days, to give people more time to sort out alternative accommodation and find employment, ended in September, returning the move-on period to 28 days for single adults. According to an internal Home Office letter seen by the Guardian, more vulnerable groups including sick, disabled and elderly people will also have their move-on period reduced to 28 days by the end of this month.

There is no indication of any immediate change to this truncated move-on period, which NGOs have linked to the rise in street homelessness among refugees. “It is important that we take the necessary time to review this evidence before making any longer-term policy decisions,” the Home Office letter states. The policy has been challenged in the high court, with some orders being issued halting enforcement of the 28-day move-on period due to the risk of destitution, including in an emergency case in October.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The 56-day move on period remains in place for all families and vulnerable individuals until the end of the year. We are working with local councils, NGOs and other stakeholders to ensure any necessary assistance is provided for those individuals who are granted refugee status. An independent evaluation of the pilot is still ongoing.”

Official statistics showed England’s homelessness emergency remained unchanged in 2024-25 as the wait goes on for the Labour government’s long-term strategy, reports the Big Issue.

The number of households experiencing homelessness largely stagnated during Labour’s first year in power, official statistics show, ahead of the government’s long-term strategy to tackle the issue. Government statistics revealed 360,050 households in England contacted local authorities for support with homelessness between April 2024 and March 2025, down 0.3% overall on 2023-24. Of these, 330,410 households were owed support to prevent or relieve homelessness, representing a 0.9% increase on the previous year. There was a 10% increase in the number of households contacting councils for support between 2022-23 and 2023-24 so the stats show Labour’s £1 billion investment in tackling homelessness and rough sleeping has slowed England’s homelessness crisis.

But homelessness organisations warned that stagnation does not represent progress and called on Labour to deliver its cross-government long-term homelessness strategy. The long-awaited strategy had been expected before the end of the year. Big Issue founder Lord John Bird said: “Homelessness remains stubbornly high. This government should be commended for the record investment spent on fire-fighting a homelessness crisis that spiralled under their predecessors, but it’s clearly going to take more clever thinking to drive down the number of people falling homeless in our nation.”

“All eyes now on the government to finally deliver a homelessness strategy which eases the pressures that are causing people to lose their homes in the first place. The tragedy of thousands suffering homelessness from the damage done by poverty is something that we could eliminate, if government seriously put resources into not allowing poverty to be all that you have at birth.”

A total of 147,870 households needed council support to prevent homelessness with almost 40% of those cases down to the end of a private rented tenancy. A landlord wishing to sell or re-let the property was the main reason why households faced eviction although the 21,920 households represented a 2.6% decrease on the previous year. The Labour government has introduced the Renters’ Rights Act to give tenants greater security and is set to ban section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions from May next year.

Nye Jones, head of campaigns at Generation Rent, said: “Our broken private renting system is the biggest cause of homelessness. But councils have no choice but to push people back into it, causing a revolving door of insecurity and misery. The Renters’ Rights Act banning section 21 evictions will help stem the tide from private renting into homelessness, but landlords will still be able to evict in order to sell the home. Meanwhile, new protections from being kicked out could become meaningless if sudden rent hikes cause us to be priced out instead.”

There was also a 10% increase in the number of households facing homelessness leaving accommodation provided by the Home Office for asylum support, rising to 3,820 households. Since September, the Home Office has cut the “move-on” period from 56 days to 28 days for new refugees. There was a 13.1% rise in households becoming homeless after leaving institutions such as hospital, prisons, or looked after child placements, reaching 10,860 households.

Emma Haddad, chief executive of St Mungo’s, said the government’s upcoming strategy will be “critical to addressing the root causes” of homelessness including the flow from institutions into homelessness. The year also saw a rise in the number of care leavers, aged 18 to 20, facing homelessness, increasing from 4,310 to 4,610 and representing more than one in 10 care leavers. It is particularly worrying that 600 of these young people faced homelessness straight after leaving a care placement, for example, from foster care or a children’s home. This is a clear indication of a failure of planning,” said Linda Briheim-Crookall, head of policy and practice development at Coram Voice.

A total of 132,410 households were in temporary accommodation across England as of June this year, including 172,420 children. The latest annual statistics showed 41,250 households were placed in temporary accommodation outside their local area as of March this year. They were most likely to be in nightly paid accommodation, such as hotels and B&Bs, with 26,520 households making up 64% of that total. Labour has pledged to focus on prevention to reduce homelessness. The autumn budget promised to slash child poverty through the end of the two-child limit on benefits from April next year. But the government opted to leave local housing allowance rates untouched despite pleas from homelessness charities and campaigners to ensure housing benefit reflects rising rents.

Homelessness minister Alison McGovern said: “Everyone deserves a roof over their head, yet these figures show too many people are at risk. We are tackling the worst forms of homelessness and figures show we are reducing the worst forms of temporary accommodation with on-going reductions in B&B use. Given that research found temporary accommodation was linked to the deaths of 74 children in the five years to 2024 it is vital we continue this work. That’s why our upcoming homelessness strategy will set out bold steps to prevent homelessness and provide lasting solutions. Alongside our record investment of over £1 billion and £39 billion for social and affordable housing, we are creating a system where homelessness happens less and ends faster.”

Sefton Council said it has a statutory duty to prevent and relieve homelessness and pointed to the shortage of single person accommodation, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Concerns about the purchase of a Southport hotel have been categorically dismissed by Sefton Council, which said it remains committed to tackling the misery of homelessness in the borough. The proposals for Sefton Council’s acquisition of the Salfordian Hotel were called in by Cllr Mike Sammon after he raised concerns about the future allocation of the apartments, and suggested the eligibility criteria include families.

Cllr Sammon’s objection came just a few weeks after the council’s cabinet had recommended the hotel purchase for approval, defining it as ‘valuable opportunity’ to increase its supply of temporary accommodation for people experiencing homelessness. The hotel has been owned by Salford City Council since the 1960s, but the local authority recently approached Sefton Council with an offer to sell the site. Salford Council were said to be keen for the property to remain in public ownership. If Sefton Council decides to proceed with the purchase, it would need to apply for all necessary planning approvals before completing the sale. If planning permission is required, the council confirmed it will apply to the Local Planning Authority, and commence a consultation process.

Last night in Bootle Town Hall (November 19), Cllr Sammon presented his reasons at a ‘Special Meeting’ of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Regeneration and Skills. He said: “This call in relates to the decision which states that The Salfordian will be used for single adults in priority groups. Families with children who are also a priority group have been excluded. What is missing from the report, and the FAQ, is a clear explanation for that reason and why families were excluded. When the council describes the building as suitable for small households, it naturally raises a question that has not yet been answered, why has the decision been restricted strictly to singles and couples without exploring whether some level of family provision could be included.”

Cllr Sammon continued: “Many residents have said they would feel more assured if there was some capacity for families. This site is directly opposite a popular family park and people naturally see it as the kind of location where some family use could work.”

Responding to the motion, Sefton Council’s cabinet member for communities and partnership, Cllr Liz Dowd said: “The local authority has a statutory obligation to prevent and relieve homelessness. In doing so, it also relieves the misery of homelessness and provides hope for the future. The purchase of The Salfordian really will support these aims.”

Cllr Dowd added: “I’m genuinely struggling to understand the reason for this call in. This council has such an advantageous opportunity to purchase a building to relieve homelessness and misery. It should be noted that 70% of those currently in temporary accommodation are single people, as I indicated in the Cabinet meeting on the second of October. These people are our family and friends, and I indicated the main reasons for homelessness. So why would we not do all we can to provide a safe and secure roof over somebody’s head?”

Sefton Council’s assistant director of people and communities, Mel Ormesher added to the debate: “The purchase of The Salfordian will assist the council in both increasing and improving its supply of temporary accommodation. The council is currently supporting around 270 households experiencing homelessness and with temporary accommodation. 70% of this demand is from single households and 30% from families, and at the time of reporting, that would break down roughly to 67 families and 207 individuals. It’s with individual accommodation, single person accommodation, that is really in short supply in Sefton, in both the social and private rented sectors.”

Ms Ormesher continued: “The purchase of The Salfordian provides the council with an opportunity to increase its supply of temporary accommodation in-house and within the borough. To note, [the rooms] are largely single rooms. A couple of them are double rooms. Therefore, in terms of talking about accommodation for families, notwithstanding the regulations around accommodation for families, those rooms would not really be considered suitable without significant regulation.”

The committee voted it was not concerned by the cabinet’s recommendation, and Sefton Council’s proposal to purchase The Salfordian will progress to the next stage.