Barwell pledges action to tackle rough sleeping 'moral shame'

Gavin Barwell at an event on Saturday confirmed that changes to the law to place new duties on councils to rehouse homeless people are still under consideration by the government. The Homelessness Reduction Bill, a private members’ bill tabled by Conservative MP Bob Blackman, will have its second reading in parliament on 28 October.

Mr Barwell confirmed that the government would resource any new duty if it was introduced.

“At Westminster we will be looking at in a few weeks’ time some proposed changes to the law in relation to the duties that are put on councils and the responsibilities of government to deal with those problems, and we will be talking about it at that level,” Mr Barwell stated. “Absolutely there is a responsibility on government in terms of resourcing this important work.”

He said: “Across all parties there is a passion to do something about [homelessness] and money is part of it.”

Mr Barwell referred to people sleeping rough as “probably the most visible indicator of the profound housing problems that we have in this country that it is now my job to try and tackle”.

“In a way it is a moral shame on us that in this year we still see these problems on our streets,” he stated, before adding it is a problem that is not only common to the UK but one that many other countries are also grappling with.

The solution, however, requires action “at a variety of levels” and not just from government, he added.

“Absolutely there are responsibilities on government, parliament and the council but it also needs that level of community engagement,” he said. “It is also important to get processes right locally,” he added.

Mr Barwell was speaking at an event in his Croydon constituency which has brought together key players in the homelessness sector to try and solve Croydon’s “chronic” rough sleeping problem by 2020. The number of rough sleepers in the borough jumped from 30 in 2014 to 51 in 2015, according to government statistics. There were just four rough sleepers reported in the borough in 2010.

Last week more than 100 volunteers headed out onto the streets of Croydon to speak to homeless people and gather information about who they are and what they need to successfully move into accommodation.

The volunteers spoke to 64 rough sleepers during the course of the week, 42 of whom completed surveys. The ages of the rough sleepers ranged from 18 to 67 and between them the rough sleepers had attended accident and emergency departments 53 times in the last six months.

The Croydon partnership is led by Evolve Housing + Support with Crisis, Expert Link, Homeless Link and Thames Reach, and is endorsed by Croydon Council. Croydon is one of two councils in London to act as an early adopter for a European campaign to end street homelessness, coordinated by the Building and Social Housing Foundation. The campaign is designed to involve the local community in drawing up and implementing solutions.

Senior figures from homelessness charities and local government will give evidence this afternoon as the Communities and Local Government Committee discusses the Homelessness Reduction Bill. The private members’ bill will include measures to help councils intervene earlier to prevent people becoming homeless, as well as providing help for single homeless people.