The Homelessness Reduction Act comes into force on 3 April. It is the biggest change to England's homelessness legislation for 40 years. Please find our comment below. For more information or to arrange interviews contact the Crisis media team on media@crisis.org.uk or 0207 426 3880.  

Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis, said:  

"We're delighted that the Homelessness Reduction Act comes into force today. This is the biggest change to England's homelessness legislation for 40 years and a big step in the right direction towards ending homelessness for good.    

"All homeless people will now be entitled to more meaningful support from their local council and, crucially, councils will have to step in earlier to prevent people becoming homeless in the first place.   

"We want to thank everyone who campaigned with us to bring about this landmark change to the law, and recognise the political will for reform spearheaded by Conservative MP Bob Blackman. The new legislation, a Private Members Bill sponsored by Mr Blackman, was passed thanks to MPs who collaborated across political parties, as well as the efforts of dozens of charities and thousands of members of the public.” 

"The Government must now ensure that councils have the funding and resources they need to successfully implement the Act. And, while we celebrate the launch of the Act, we recognise it's not a panacea - there's still much to do, especially when it comes to preventing homelessness.

We look forward to working with the Government's Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Taskforce to put in place the measures needed to end homelessness once and for all." 

About the Homelessness Reduction Act  

• The Homelessness Reduction Act states that people who are at risk of becoming homeless within 56 days are entitled to support from their local council. All homeless people are also now entitled to support.  

 

• Previously, local authorities were required to accommodate homeless people classified as being in ‘priority need’ - a classification mostly awarded to families with children. There was no legal requirement to prevent people from becoming homeless, or to provide support to anyone who was homeless. Many councils had established co-ordinated prevention activity for people at risk of becoming homeless within 28 days, via their Housing Options team. But, in the absence of a universal legal duty, the availability of this prevention and relief support for all homeless people varied significantly across England.  

  

• The Act, a Private Member’s Bill tabled by Conservative backbench MP Bob Blackman and championed by Crisis, was passed in May 2017. Councils have been allocated £73m of additional funding to implement the new duties. The efforts to get the Act signed into law were supported by dozens of homelessness charities, more than 80,000 campaigners, and politicians across parties in the House of Commons and House of Lords. 

  

About Crisis  

Crisis is the national charity for homeless people. We help people directly out of homelessness, and campaign for the changes needed to solve it altogether. We know that together we can end homelessness.