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Rough Sleepers
3. Laura Moffatt (Crawley): If he will make a statement on progress made in reducing the number of rough sleepers. [120141]
9. Fiona Mactaggart (Slough): If he will make a statement on progress made in providing services to rough sleepers. [120147]
The Minister for Local Government and the Regions (Ms Hilary Armstrong): We are implementing the proposals in our national strategy "Coming in from the Cold". I am pleased to announce that I have agreed the final step required to ensure that there are enough hostel beds for vulnerable rough sleepers in London. We will spend £9.6 million on 150 hostel beds, which will bring the total to the target set out in the strategy. In December, we met our first milestone of reducing the number of rough sleepers by one tenth. January street counts showed that there had been a fall of around one third in the number of people sleeping rough in central London since June 1998.
Laura Moffatt: That is most welcome news, but I would like to take the argument a little further. Clearly, there is now a commitment to deal with rough sleeping. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the most important part of the new package is to ensure that rough sleepers do not return to the streets? Does she also agree that we should share the good practice of many local authorities in and around London, such as short-term accommodation for the young--STAY--in Crawley and the foyer projects of local government, the London and Quadrant housing
trust and the Housing Corporation, which give young people stability and ensure that they do not return to the streets?
Ms Armstrong: My hon. Friend is right; it is very important that we do more, both to prevent people needing to end up on the streets and to ensure that, once we get them inside having slept rough, we sustain their ability to remain in stable accommodation and work with them consistently. Projects such as the ones that she described in Crawley are exactly those that we are seeking to develop throughout the country, so that people recognise that coming to London does not mean pavements covered in gold, and they are able to find a settled life in their home area.
Fiona Mactaggart: I was very pleased to welcome the Minister to Slough to open a practical project at the Look Ahead hostel, offering 18 places, to reduce the number of rough sleepers in our town. It is clear from speaking to its residents that crucial to improving services for rough sleepers is the quality of health care that they receive. Many have had problems with drug and alcohol abuse, and if health services and GPs do not provide them with care, they are likely to return to the streets. Will my right hon. Friend discuss with the Department of Health ways in which it can work with housing projects to improve health care for rough sleepers and former rough sleepers to keep them off the streets?
Ms Armstrong: I was delighted to visit and open the Serena Hall hostel in Slough last week. It is another good example of co-operation between central and local government and the Housing Corporation to ensure appropriate services. We know that many people end up sleeping rough because they abuse drugs or alcohol, but that the necessary services have simply not been available at the time and in the place that they needed them. I assure my hon. Friend that we are already working very closely with the Department of Health. We are joining funds in order to establish contact and assessment teams to pick up people who have specific problems, and to ensure that they come inside and receive appropriate services. Mental and physical health and the tackling of drug and alcohol abuse are central to the strategy.
Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire): Will the Minister take this opportunity to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir G. Young) who, when he was Housing Minister, launched the rough sleepers initiative, which was so successful under the previous Government? In working out how successful the RSI has been, does she agree that it is important to compare winter figures with winter figures and summer figures with summer figures?
Unlike the figures that the Minister quoted, the reality is that, in June 1998, there were 620 rough sleepers in London, but by June 1999 that number had increased to 635. If one compares winter figures with winter figures, one also finds an increase in the number of rough sleepers in London that is quite contrary to the spin that the Minister put on it. Is she not concerned that the decline in investment in social housing under this Government is
causing a net increase in homelessness--unless one has the good fortune to be provided with a subsidised house by the RMT?
Ms Armstrong: I am sorry to disappoint the hon. Gentleman, but the figures that I gave demonstrate a reduction not only since we began the strategy, but year on year from January to January. I am really sorry that he is not full-heartedly behind the policy. The problem with the previous Government's policy was that about £250 million was spent and much new accommodation provided, but there was no reduction in the number of people sleeping rough. Our strategy builds on what the previous Government did, but goes much further. We believe that it is not necessary for people to live on the streets, and we will make sure that they do not.
New Deal for Communities
4. Mr. Bob Laxton (Derby, North): If he will make a statement on the progress of the new deal for communities. [120142]
The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Mr. John Prescott): Seventeen new deal for communities pathfinder partnerships have already received offers of long-term support of more than £770 million to help them implement strategies for real change. That funding will help communities tackle interconnected problems, such as unemployment, crime, educational under-achievement and poor health, in a fully integrated and joined-up way. A second round of 22 areas across England, including Derby, have submitted their proposals for achieving long-term sustainable regeneration.
Mr. Laxton: I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. He referred to the bid from my constituency, Derby, North. May I stress the need for the bid to go through smoothly? Can my right hon. Friend assure me that the decision on that will be taken on 22 May? To illustrate the strength of the bid, may I read two quick paragraphs from a vision statement--
Madam Speaker: Order. This is Question Time. The hon. Gentleman should save that for an Adjournment debate.
Mr. Prescott: As my hon. Friend said, Derby is one of the new areas under consideration. It is clear that a number of areas in Derby are greatly in need of such a programme. We will make the decision as quickly as we can.
Mr. Archie Norman (Tunbridge Wells): Can the Deputy Prime Minister say how much less the Government spent on urban regeneration last year than was spent in the last year of the previous Government?
Mr. Prescott: At well over £2.5 billion, our regeneration programme is considerably more substantial in its direction and concentration in regeneration areas and developments.
Mr. Norman: The Deputy Prime Minister has again failed to answer the most basic question. May I commend
to him for bedtime reading his Department's own annual report, which states that £1.4 billion was spent last year on regeneration programmes, as against £17 million less under the previous Conservative Government? Does he accept that, whatever the good intentions, and for all the repeated announcements and reheating of old rhetoric, the new deal for communities has been treacly slow to get off the ground? Does he agree that the local election results last week in London, Hartlepool, the midlands and many other urban areas were a clear verdict on Labour's failure to deliver for its urban heartlands?
Mr. Prescott: When the hon. Gentleman has been in the House a little longer, he will understand the kind of problems that we inherited from the previous Administration. In the areas that we have identified to be new deal communities, the mortality rate is 30 per cent. higher than the average, and levels of unemployment, burglary and other problems associated with new deal areas are considerably higher. We have developed selected programmes in health, education and tackling crime, all to be added to the regeneration programme, in addition to the £800 million that has been designated for the new deal areas. That is the scale of resources that we are directing at those problems, and it is much greater than under the previous Administration.
The amount of money going into social housing was mentioned earlier. The Government put £5 billion of capital receipts from the sale of council houses into improving housing in those areas. Money on that scale was kept back by the Tories, who preferred to keep the interest payments rather than improve houses.
Mr. Hilary Benn (Leeds, Central): May I draw my right hon. Friend's attention to the powerful film by Fergal Keane, which was shown on BBC television last night and dealt with the Lincoln Green estate in my constituency? I am glad to say that, since the film was shot, a start has been made on regenerating that area. Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating all the people in the area who are working to make it a better place to live? Incidentally, there was a swing to Labour in the local elections there last Thursday. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that is precisely the kind of estate that could benefit from new deal for community funding?
Mr. Prescott: I quite agree. My hon. Friend has drawn attention to the key point of community involvement in the schemes. They are not simply about councils getting together, but are about the community's active involvement and different Departments joining up to ensure that the schemes are directed positively. All the schemes show a willingness to innovate and a long-term commitment to deliver. We have adopted precisely that strategy, and it fits the example that my hon. Friend cited.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York): Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that the new deal has been a poor deal for constituencies such as the Vale of York, and that it has failed dismally to help the young unemployed or communities? The Deputy Prime Minister should focus the Government's attention on processing applications for state aid for pig farmers and for Rover. That would help industry much more than his four schemes.
Mr. Prescott: I think that the hon. Lady has mixed up several schemes. We are considering the new deal for
communities, whereas she referred to the new deal on unemployment. The scheme that she mentions is working. As we promised, we are getting more and more people back to work, and there has been a 70 per cent. reduction in youth unemployment; that is an important achievement.The hon. Lady also mentioned farming and Rover. We shall hear a statement on the latter shortly. I simply point out that the previous Government sold Rover for £1 and left us with all the problems.
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