BOTH Reading Borough Council and West Berkshire Council have been awarded funds from a targeted £30m Rough Sleeping Initiative to support those sleeping rough in Reading West.

Reading Borough is to receive £316,500 and West Berkshire is to receive £211,312.

Across the country, this funding will provide over 500 new staff focused on rough sleeping.

This will include more outreach workers to engage with people on the streets, specialist mental health and substance misuse workers and dedicated co-ordinators to drive efforts to reduce rough sleeping in their areas.

It will also provide over 1700 new bed spaces including both emergency and settled accommodation.

This builds on the Homelessness Reduction Act which came into force in April and is the most ambitious legislative reform in tackling homelessness in decades.

The Act, supported by both Shelter and Crisis, requires councils to provide early support to people at risk of homelessness.

It will transform the culture of homelessness service delivery by ensuring that all English local authorities, public services and the third sector work together to actively prevent homelessness for people at risk, irrespective of whether they are a family or single person, what has put them at risk, or if they have a local connection to the area.

Local authorities will work with people at risk of losing their homes to develop personalised housing plans, tailored to focus on the needs and circumstances of the household.

The Government has announced £73 million in funding to help councils to deliver their new responsibilities in respect of the Homeless Reduction Act.

Overall, £1.2 billion has been allocated in funding by the Government for tackling homelessness through to 2020, which includes money and a dedicated focus across government departments to tackle rough sleeping.

I firmly believe that just one person without a roof over their head is one too many, and it is vitally important that the most vulnerable people in society, including homeless people and rough sleepers, are helped to get their lives back on track.

The implementation of these radical solutions will reduce levels of homelessness, not only in my constituency, but across our country, helping to achieve the Government’s aim of halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it altogether by 2027.