20 August 2020 – the day’s press release

Homelessness figures demand urgent need to extend eviction ban

The Liberal Democrats have urged the Government to extend the eviction ban, after official figures revealed thousands of families in private rented accommodation were deemed at risk of homelessness.

According to official statistics, 38,450 households were assessed as being threatened with homelessness, with another 36,690 were assessed as homeless from January to March 2020.

Around a fifth of households who were homeless or threatened with homelessness cited the end of a private rented tenancy as the reason for losing their last settled home.

The figures also revealed that 2,320 households were rough sleeping in January to March 2020, up 26% compared to the previous year.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said:

These figures are yet further proof the Government must rethink its heartless decision to resume evictions from next week.

Thousands of families in the private rented sector were already being threatened with homelessness earlier this year, now they face losing their homes in the middle of a pandemic.

Ministers must act now to stop a devastating surge in homelessness sweeping across the country as we face a potential second wave.

The sharp rise in rough sleeping also shows why criminalising rough sleeping through the Vagrancy Act must end. Instead, Ministers should protect emergency funding for local councils to permanently accommodate rough sleepers.

Read more by or more about or .
This entry was posted in News and Press releases.
Advert

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Andrew Tampion
    There is no evidence that the Argentinian Government intends to invade the Falklands, although that could change. If our Government increases defence spending...
  • cim
    There seems to be two separate things here and it's not entirely clear to me which is being proposed. 1) At least some parents would find it really useful if...
  • cim
    I think in the context of local/national elections it's pretty superfluous: if political parties don't take falling turnouts as a danger sign in their own right...
  • Jenny Barnes
    We apparently grow 52% of our required food on 6.1 million hectares of agricultural land. At a density of 50 houses per hectare, we could build 5 million houses...
  • Tony Vickers
    The mitigations and transitional relief measures for "income-poor, asset-rich" are the same as for FairerShare's PPT https://fairershare.org.uk/proportional-pro...