Thank you for contacting me about youth homelessness.
I understand your concerns about levels of youth homelessness in the UK. No young person, indeed no one at all, should be forced to live on the streets, and I share your desire to end homelessness and rough sleeping for good.
There isn't an official local figure on how many people are homeless in Warwickshire, however, the Government does collect data on households that have formally approached their local authority for homelessness assistance — and on that measure, young people aged 16 to 24 made up 20% of those owed a prevention or relief duty in the most recent quarter, underscoring why the delivery of the National Plan to End Homelessness at a local level will be so important.
I welcome that the Government has finally published its National Plan to End Homelessness, which builds on the last Government’s Ending Rough Sleeping For Good strategy. The Plan includes the a number of points about supporting young people, and promises a national Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit. I hope that the Government will publish the details of the promised Toolkit in good time and in close consultation with those most affected.
More widely, I hope that the Government will work to build further on the work of the previous Conservative Government. The previous Government oversaw youth unemployment fall 43 per cent from 2010 to 2023, and put in place an unprecedented £2.4 billion to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness. This includes the Rough Sleeping Initiative which provided £547 million over the period from April 2022 to March 2025 to support locally led tailored support and services for rough sleepers.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
