Karen Buck MP 

KAREN Buck has questioned the logic of cutting rough sleeping budgets at a time when homelessness rates were on the rise in Westminster.

The Westminster North MP told a debate in the House of Commons the council rough sleeping levels had “soared”.

Her speech came weeks after Westminster Council slashed its rough sleeping and supported housing budget by £880,000, according to their finance report for 2017/18.

Ms Buck said: “In my home borough of Westminster – which includes Westminster station, where, as has been mentioned, we see rough sleepers – the level of rough sleeping has soared. The Westminster Council area alone contains a third of all the rough sleepers in London. The council has just cut, indeed slashed, its rough sleeping budget. Does the secretary of state believe that that will help or hinder efforts to reduce rough sleeping?”

Responding, the communities and local government secretary Sajid Javid told the Commons: “We are providing more funds for councils throughout the country, including Westminster Council, to combat rough sleeping.

“For example, we have provided £100million to deliver 2,000 independent living units, as well as a £20million rough sleeping grant. However, I want to do more, and the government are determined to do more.”

He added that he had recently visited Finland to learn from their “housing first” project.

Westminster has the highest number of homeless people in the country but it was claimed in a council report on the cuts, earlier this year, that the savings would not impact the services provided. The council’s plan was that by “working the contracts harder” they could find “new ways to work with other partners to deliver services”.

A council spokesman said: “We spend more than any other local authority on rough sleeping and have a no-second-night-out policy to make sure we help people off the streets as quickly as possible. The majority of rough sleepers have complex needs such as addiction or mental health problems which we tackle by working with the NHS and other agencies.”

Despite financial pressures, he added, the council “…continues to invest over £6million to make sure that rough sleepers get the support they need. We have maintained the same level of service for these vulnerable individuals and there will be no reduction in hostel places”.