Surge in homelessness predicted

The government must increase benefits and reintroduce a ban on evictions to avoid the cost-of-living crisis having a “catastrophic” impact on homelessness, the former head of the civil service has warned.

In its 2019 general election manifesto, the Conservative Party committed to ending rough sleeping by 2024. In March 2022, the annual snapshot showed that the number of people sleeping rough was at the lowest level in eight years as a result of the emergency measures taken during the pandemic.

But Lord Bob Kerslake said this progress would be undone unless the government took urgent new action to prevent more people becoming homeless.

Kerslake chairs the Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, a group of housing, homelessness and health experts, as well as politicians, established in 2021 to examine the lessons from the emergency response that supported people sleeping rough during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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