Questions to the Mayor of London – answered at on 2 June 2020.
Could you provide any update on how many people are still street homeless in London?
I am proud that my team led by Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development Tom Copley has been working with charities and other partners, and they have quickly led the way to protect one of the most vulnerable groups in our city, rough sleepers, during this pandemic. We are now culminating in supporting over 1,200 rough sleepers across 14 GLA-procured hotels, with many more similarly accommodated by London’s councils. This work has meant that they can observe social distancing and other public health guidelines and stay safe. I welcome the backing the Government has given to our work by both providing funding towards the operation and rolling out our approach nationwide.
However, you are right to highlight that there are still people sleeping rough. Outreach teams are still going out, and since lockdown began the number of people they have seen each week has varied between 400 and 800. Around 40% are already known to services but, shockingly, most are new to the streets. Although some people have refused offers of support, many want and need accommodation.
To meet this continuing demand, we have recently engaged an additional hotel, making over 100 additional beds available. This will help a significant number of people for now, but the Government needs to commit to cover the cost of any further accommodation needed.
I am deeply worried that the Government now appears to be backtracking on its earlier commitments to protect vulnerable rough sleepers. Clarity is urgently needed on the next steps, both for those still on the streets and for the thousands accommodated in hotels supported by City Hall and London’s councils.
The Government must also do more to stop people ending up on the streets during the pandemic. Our council homelessness services need clarity from the Government that they can and should be assisting those not normally entitled to help, including many non-UK nationals, and assurance that accommodation will be funded as lockdown is eased.
Thank you very much, Mr Mayor, for your answer there. All of your work on this is welcome. This is a topic I last discussed with you at the last Mayor’s Question Time in person as well. You have clearly made progress, but there are still people on the streets, as you report, between 400 and 800 people.
I am very concerned also about new flows of people onto the streets. The Housing Committee’s report Hidden Homelessness found there were 13 times more people on any given night who were homeless but coping in other ways - sofa surfing, maybe staying on public transport - than there were people sleeping on the streets.
Streets Kitchen, a charity doing outreach work, is saying that they are busier than ever. We do need to make sure that in the short term we keep the capacity in the hotel schemes growing and growing as much as we can.
You mentioned the further support from the Government. You have had no clarity and clarification presumably on that since the rumours a few days ago that it was withdrawing support from councils. What are you doing to get more information about that, and is there any way in which we as Assembly Members can help pressure the Government to keep this going? We do risk putting many more people into harm’s way.
Yes, thank you for your points and your questions. There are two areas of concern where you can help. One is in relation to ongoing support.
The second is those new rough sleepers. You will be aware that we have a far more sophisticated way of assessing rough sleeping and the outreach work we do than other parts of the country. Other parts of the country have the one count in autumn. We have the regular Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) data, which is very accurate. You will know from the report that has been done about the concerns we have.
The third area is for those who have no recourse to public funds. There is a real concern about what happens to them.
Any help in those three areas is appreciated. There has been radio silence from the Government in those areas in relation to our lobbying.
The good news though is that the Government has asked Dame Louise Casey [DBE CB] to continue her excellent work in this area, and she is passionate about ending rough sleeping and for it not to be a revolving door. We are trying to persuade the Government to adopt our ‘in for good’ principle, which we have been using for our outreach work and our winter shelter programme. That could really be a game-changer to avoid the revolving door.
Moving on now to private renters, as you know, the loss of private tenancy is one of the leading causes of homelessness. There is a big issue brewing at the moment with renters who will be stuck with large rent arrears built up over the crisis.
I have called for an extension to the halt on eviction proceedings and I have said that arrears should be forgiven, with landlords in need able to claim back lost income. I said this yesterday to the Minister for London [Paul Scully MP].
The New Economics Foundation, which you have worked with on renters’ rights, and the London Renters Union are also calling for rent forgiveness. Will you join us in calling for these two key policies?
I was there first but I am not going to argue about that. My ‘triple lock’ talks about that issue.
Also, I have said to the Government that it should step up in relation to support for landlords who may struggle. One of the ways it could do that very quickly is by increasing the London Housing Allowance. That is a very simple thing it can do, which would really help fill the gap. Also, they should be supporting those landlords. You have to remember that there may be ‑‑
Mr Mayor, sorry. I am running out of my time, as we all do. I asked you about extending the eviction proceedings ban and forgiving arrears that have been built up so far. As far as I can tell, your ‘triple lock’ merely extends the period of repayment for arrears. The principle here should be that renters should not be shouldering the burden of these arrears and that the Government should be helping small landlords in the way it helps any other small business.
That is what I said. What I said is that the Government has to extend the period from June [2020] for no evictions onwards. It has to amend section 8 so that arrears cannot be used as a basis for the evictions that we are worried about. Also, it should be supporting those landlords, many of whom may have the property as their pension, and they have to pay a mortgage which will continue in relation to ‑‑
Can I get clarity, just in my last 30 seconds? You are supporting that the arrears should be cancelled for renters who have run into arrears problems during this crisis in the current period as opposed to going forward?
What I am saying is that the Government should be supporting those landlords who have problems because renters have not been able to pay their rent. Renters should be supported by the eviction period being extended beyond June. There should also be a position where, for those tenants who have rent arrears, that is not a basis on which they can be evicted in the future.
You are still saying they should pay it back. I am not sure that that is the answer that I was hoping for, but hopefully we can persuade you to change your tune in future weeks.
Assembly Member Berry, sorry. You have run out of your time. Thank you very much.