We now have a new Government. Their coalition agreement doesn’t say anything about the homeless, so we thought it would be helpful to look at what both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats put into their manifestos.

The Conservative Party

What the Conservatives indicate will be a foundation of their homeless agenda will be a more “joined-up” approach across Government departments – those mentioned being Work and Pensions, Health, Justice and Defence so that we avoid the following “Homelessness organisations report great frustration that they are unable to resolve even simple issues because no one within a relevant Government department believes that it is within their remit” They make it clear that any Housing Minister will adopt a multi-disciplinary approach and that the current street count practice of “bracketing down” where local authorities which produce returns on street counts where the numbers are really 15 rough sleepers can reduce the number of rough sleepers to the lowest number in that return bracket of 11-20 (so, in this case it would be reported as 11). The street counts estimate that there are 483 rough sleepers nationwide. In reality, we know that there are more – they are just not picked up during street counts.

Specifically, they recommend the following:
Work and Pensions Reform of the Housing Benefit System in order to seek ways to end Housing Benefit being a disincentive to work, the proposed Welfare to Work programme (which will pay voluntary bodies and others by results when they enable people to move from long term welfare into work for a sustained period), lifting restrictions on voluntary work, providing the resource of an address at which persons of “no fixed abode” can receive mail.

Health Specifically, the Conservatives have outlined three main areas to tackle – the relationship between mental health and homelessness, a more flexible funding framework for local primary care trusts so that health provision through third sector organisations can receive funding through this route and better access to GP services for homeless persons.
Justice To reduce the revolving door potential for many prisoners, changing how prisoners get paid for work so that some is diverted to a Victim’s fund, some for day to day needs in the prison and an amount saved as a “nest egg” when they leave prison aimed at helping provide a deposit or rent in advance
Defence A commitment to improving service leaver’s access to social housing and temporary accommodation, training for new careers, housing and appropriate healthcare services.

The Liberal Democrats The manifesto does not have a special section devoted to homelessness as such but the following key points emerge as significant:
Statistics to properly reflect numbers of homeless In line with the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats believe the homeless figures should include groups such as the hidden homeless who are “sofa-surfing” with friends or extended family
The principle of “hard-wiring” fairness into British society The Liberal Democrat stance is that by creating jobs, increasing access to therapy, providing much needed housing or making the tax system fairer, the conditions that contribute to making a person homeless are reduced.
The provision of more housing stock The Liberal Democrats plan to bring a quarter of a million empty homes back into use with 100,000 of these used as social homes, change the public sector borrowing rules so that councils can borrow against their rent revenues and can build more social housing – this could bring another 100,000 homes into being.
A commitment to changing the way that society views the “homeless” This will include how people with mental health issues and substance abuse issues are treated by the police and the health services- priority to preventative health measures, more opportunity to access cognitive and behavioural therapies, replace short sentences with rigorously enforced community service, help offenders with substance abuse or mental health issues into appropriate accommodation – with the result that the billion pound prison-building programme can be cancelled.

We look forward to seeing what the future may bring!
Margaret Shapland – Advice and Welfare