What Will A Hung Parliament Do For The Homeless?

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With the Tories still reeling from the upset in last week’s election, and a number of things still to become clear in the coming days, Homeless Link has compiled a summary of what we know so far.

No party has won the number of seats necessary to gain an overall majority (326 of 650 seats in Westminster). This means we have what is known as a ‘hung Parliament’. In order to govern, parties must command the confidence of the House of Commons – if a party does not have majority control of the House of Commons, they have a few options. They can either enter into a formal coalition with other parties to ensure they have a majority of seats, as seen with the Coalition Government 2010-15, or operate as a minority Government with other parties offering support in key votes and on other issues on a vote-by-vote basis.

The Conservatives are the party with the largest number of seats and have announced they will be working with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to try and secure a majority. Together the parties have 328 seats. We do not yet know the full nature of the arrangement, but speculation suggests the DUP will support the Conservatives by voting for the Queen’s Speech, the first test of the feasibility of a new Government, which is scheduled for 19th June. Further support may then be offered on an issue-by-issue basis.

It is important to note that many of the issues, such as housing, welfare, health and criminal justice, are devolved in Northern Ireland. This means there is little in the DUP’s Westminster election manifesto on these issues, and it is unclear how their ten MPs might use any influence in Westminster to shape legislation in these policy areas that will not affect Northern Ireland.

With regard to the Tory election promises, this is what Homeless Link will be monitoring in the coming weeks and months:

  • The manifesto made several commitments on homelessness. These were a) implementing the Homelessness Reduction Act, b) committing to halve rough sleeping over the course of this parliament and eliminating it by 2027, c) establishing a new Homelessness Reduction Taskforce, focused on prevention and affordable housing and d) piloting Housing First projects. Homeless Link will work to ensure the experience and expertise of their members influences the implementation of these commitments on homelessness.
  • In terms of housing, the Conservatives have committed to deliver a million homes by the end of 2020 and half a million more by the end of 2022. They have also promised to give greater flexibility to housing associations to increase their housing stock.
  • The manifesto also contained proposals to improve protections for those who rent, including looking at increasing security for tenants and encouraging landlords to offer longer tenancies as standard. We know that the ending of an assured shorthold tenancy is the leading cause of homelessness and welcome initiatives to make the private rented sector more secure and accessible.

For more information, go to:

http://www.homeless.org.uk/connect/blogs/2017/jun/09/what-election-result-means-for-our-sector