The government publishes data on local authority homelessness assessments, including the age of main applicants owed a duty. You can find this in table A6 of the latest homelessness statistics, published here.

The government is providing £3.6 billion funding for homelessness services from 2026/27 to 2028/29, including more than £2.2 billion for local authorities to prevent and address homelessness and rough sleeping through the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant, as well as at least £969 million for temporary accommodation within the Revenue Support Grant. You can find local authority level allocations here.

We are taking action across government to provide targeted support to young people and their families at an earlier stage. The government is providing more than £3.6 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, which councils can use to meet the needs of people in their area including young people.

Housing authorities have a duty to assess any eligible applicant who is homeless or at risk of homelessness. They must work with the applicant to develop a personalised housing plan with actions to be taken by the authority and the applicant to try and prevent or relieve homelessness.

We have also committed to develop a national Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit and develop a dedicated chapter of the Homelessness Code of Guidance on young people, to support councils to work collaboratively with other public services to prevent youth homelessness.

Homelessness levels are far too high. We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Government will look at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors, councils and key stakeholders across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness once and for all.

More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness. This includes delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament, and abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions which will prevent private renters being exploited and discriminated against and empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases. The Government has also confirmed £450 million for a third round of the Local Authority Housing Fund which will support local authorities to obtain better quality temporary accommodation for homeless families. The Government continues to support councils to deliver the Homelessness Reduction Act, including through the £440 million Homelessness Prevention Grant in 2024/25.

An individual remains eligible for asylum support for a prescribed period from the day they are notified of the decision on their asylum claim. Where someone is given notice that their asylum claim has been granted, their appeal has been allowed or their asylum claim has been refused but they have been given leave to enter or remain, the prescribed period in legislation is 28 days. There has been no change to the prescribed period.

Individuals should make plans to move on from asylum support as quickly as possible. We offer support through Migrant Help or their partner organisation in doing this. This includes providing advice on accessing the labour market, on applying for Universal Credit and signposting to local authorities for assistance with housing.

We are engaging the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on ensuring individuals can move on from asylum support as smoothly as possible.

Figures on the number of discontinuations are not available in a readily reportable format.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his work on homelessness. There should be no homeless veterans in this country. Provision is generally available but, under Op Fortitude, we have procured £8.5 million-worth of services to deal with instances in which it is not. This will be a clear, dedicated pathway for those who are at risk of homelessness, providing wraparound support in supported housing. We are going to end veterans homelessness this year, and I look forward to briefing my hon. Friend on how we are going to do it.

I apologise for not being here earlier, Mr Speaker.

Under my Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, the Ministry of Defence has a duty to ensure that all veterans leaving the armed forces are provided with a settled home, and are advised to approach their local authority. What action is my right hon. Friend taking to ensure that the MOD keeps to its legal duty?

This Government is committed to ending rough sleeping this Parliament and fully enforcing the Homelessness Reduction Act.

We are working across government and with the Ministry of Justice to address the barriers offenders face in securing suitable accommodation and are aware of the specific complex needs of women prison leavers.

To reflect this we have updated the Homelessness Code of Guidance to ensure local authorities are equipped to identify the specific support needs of women leaving prison.

The Ministry of Justice has committed over £20 million to supporting prison leavers at risk of homelessness into temporary accommodation and will support individuals into long-term settled accommodation. My department secured funding at the 2020 Spending Review to support prison leavers at risk of homelessness into private rented sector tenancies. The Ministry of Justice has also opened Approved Premises for women.

This Government is committed to ending rough sleeping this Parliament and believes everyone deserves a roof over their head. Everyone leaving prison should have somewhere safe and secure to live; accommodation enables offenders to hold down a job and reduces the likelihood of them re-offending.

Work is being done across government between the Ministry of Justice, MHCLG and the Welsh Government, to address the barriers offenders face in securing suitable accommodation and we are aware of the specific complex needs of women prison leavers.

In preparation for the launch of the new unified probation service, MoJ have published a policy framework in support of the Homelessness Reduction Act (2017) Duty to Refer process, which will mandate the roles and responsibilities of both prison and probation staff in making effective referrals. The operation of the new policy framework will be monitored and reviewed on a quarterly basis with MHCLG and any adjustments to the process incorporated into future iterations of the policy framework.

To support the oversight of its COVID-19 response, HMPPS set up seven Homelessness Prevention Teams to help find accommodation for offenders upon release. These teams have been very successful in securing temporary accommodation outcomes, including short-term rented accommodation and building new local partnerships with local authorities and housing partners.  The HPTs continue to operate.

We are investing more than £20m in supporting prison leavers at risk of homelessness into temporary accommodation. Individuals released from prison will be provided up to 12 weeks of temporary accommodation and will be supported into long-term settled accommodation before the end of that 12-week period. Initially launching in five national probation regions, the service will support around 3,000 offenders in its first year and will be commencing this Summer. It will be in operation during the next financial year 2021-22, with a view to scaling up and rolling out nationally. The service will take account of the needs of women, including those with complex needs and accommodation provision will be dedicated to single gender usage as required.

We are also introducing and testing a new specialist housing advisor role in twenty prisons, including within the female estate. The new role will seek to strengthen links between prisons, through the gate teams and local authorities to improve accommodation outcomes for those at risk of homelessness. Subject to evaluation, the intention is to scale up and roll-out nationally across all resettlement prisons.