Scott Mann has welcomed an announcement from the Government that Cornwall will get over £1.2 million in funding to prevent homelessness.
The Flexible Homelessness Support Grant (FHSG) will give councils greater flexibility to prioritise homelessness prevention and will replace the tightly controlled ‘temporary accommodation management fee’ (TAMF), which can only be used for expensive intervention when a household is already homeless.
Councils across England will receive £402 million over the next 2 years, and no local authority will receive less annual funding under the grant than they would have received under the TAMF.
Cornwall will receive £580,000 in 2017/18 and £650,000 in 2018/19, putting total funding at over £1.2 million for the two year period.
Scott said:
“I’m delighted to see the Government committing more money to homelessness in Cornwall and to see this new grant which will help prevent homelessness in a more effective way.
“This comes on top of the £290,000 that Cornwall received from the Rough Sleeping Grant back in January and the Government’s support for Conservative MP Bob Blackman's Homelessness Reduction Bill, which will ensure that more people get the help they need from councils to avoid being homeless.
“Not only should we be helping those who are already homeless, but we should also be preventing homelessness in the first place, and this new grant will do that.”
The FHSG will be managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), whereas the outgoing TAMF is overseen by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Communities Minister Marcus Jones said:
“This government is determined to help the most vulnerable in society, which is why we’re investing £550 million to 2020 to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.
“We’ve brought in a raft of measures over the last few months, from funding homelessness projects in 225 local authorities to changing the law by backing Bob Blackman’s Homelessness Reduction Bill to support for more people at risk of losing their homes.
“We’re now going further and giving councils greater flexibility, so they can move away from costly intervention when a household is already homeless, to preventing this happening in the first place.”
The new grant forms part of the wide range of measures the government is taking to prevent people from becoming homeless.
This includes:
- Protecting and maintaining the funding for councils to provide homelessness prevention services at £315 million over the 4 years to 2019-20; £20 million to support innovative approaches in local areas to tackle and prevent homelessness.
- A £20 million rough sleeping prevention fund to help individuals at risk or new to the streets get back on their feet.
- A £10 million Social Impact Bond programme to help long-term rough sleepers.
- £61 million for councils to implement the measures in the Homelessness Reduction Bill, which will change the law to provide vital support for more people at risk of losing their homes.
