To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of putting in place provisions for temporary housing to reduce homelessness in London.

Temporary accommodation provides an important safety net and means that nobody has to be without a roof over their heads.

But the Government remains clear that one person without a home is one too many. We are committed to do more to prevent more people becoming homeless in the first place. That’s why we’ve implemented the most ambitious legislative reform in decades, the Homelessness Reduction Act, which will ensure that more people get the help they need earlier to prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place.

We have replaced DWP’s Temporary Accommodation Management Fee with a Flexible Homelessness Support Grant which local authorities can use more strategically to prevent and tackle homelessness. This amounts to £615 million over three years from 2017/18.

£40 million of this grant has been retained for London to look at improving collaboration on temporary accommodation between boroughs to increase the quality of temporary accommodation in the Capital and deliver greater efficiency in procurement. In April 2017, the Department commissioned a joint study, with London Councils and the Greater London Authority, to consider options. The Department is currently considering the recommendations.

We have also announced a new £30 million Rough Sleeping Initiative to tackle rough sleeping. It is focussed on implementing measures that will have a rapid impact from this year as we work to deliver our manifesto commitment to halve it by 2022 and eliminate it altogether by 2027. In addition, we will be publishing a Rough Sleeping Strategy shortly to support this work.