The Government has announced an additional £84 million for homelessness services, providing a welcome boost to a sector under significant financial pressure. While the funding is an important in-year top-up, experts stress that it must be accompanied by long-term funding security and the promised cross-government Homelessness Strategy to deliver sustainable solutions.
A significant portion of the new funding is reserved for Voluntary, Community, and Faith organisations. Nearly £70 million has been allocated to the Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant across 62 local authorities, including £5.8 million to 12 strategic authorities, with 20% earmarked for the voluntary sector. Additional allocations include nearly £11 million to support children experiencing homelessness, £3 million for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment grant, and £200,000 for the Voluntary and Community and Frontline Sector Grant.
The new funding comes at a critical time, as 76% of homelessness support services in England report financial pressures that could negatively impact service delivery. Almost half of these services face the risk of closure, making it vital that local authorities prioritize stabilizing existing services, particularly with winter approaching when demand is likely to increase.
Despite the immediate relief, long-term funding and strategic planning remain urgent priorities. Experts and sector members emphasize the need for a fundamentally different approach to reducing homelessness, one that ensures accountability across government departments and empowers services to invest in sustainable solutions rather than merely managing crises.
The upcoming Homelessness Strategy presents an opportunity to implement a coordinated approach, integrating frontline services into a plan to prevent and reduce homelessness effectively. Delivering letters to the Interministerial Group on Tackling Rough Sleeping and Homelessness on World Homelessness Day, sector representatives have stressed the importance of ensuring services have the resources and certainty required to contribute meaningfully to the government’s long-term goals.
While the £84 million funding will provide immediate support to services nationwide, the sector hopes that by World Homelessness Day 2026, homelessness services will operate with more certainty regarding both long-term funding and their role within a comprehensive strategy to build a country free from homelessness.
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