‍Our CEO addressed the Local Government Association’s annual conference in Liverpool, during a session to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by the UK Government’s forthcoming homelessness strategy. This is what she said:

Our mission is simple: to arm governments, at national, regional, and local levels, with the best evidence and data so they can make smarter decisions — and deliver better results and better value for the citizens and communities we serve.

The new Government has set a bold goal: to get Britain back on track towards ending homelessness — not just rough sleeping. That ambition – global evidence shows – is absolutely the right one.

But let’s be honest: ending homelessness isn't rocket science. It’s even harder.

Why? Because it's fundamentally a complex systems challenge – deeply intertwined with housing, health, welfare, migration, education, and many other parts of government.

So what will it take? It will take two big things to deliver an impactful strategy.

First, a bold vision matched by a safety net and evidence-based programmes that actively reduce the flow — and kickstart a long-overdue shift towards primary prevention.

Second, solid foundations to deliver that change — because having a sound strategy is not the same as delivering it. History tells us that even the best strategies, no matter how well evidenced, are just the beginning; translating bold goals into practice isn't automatic. 

Take how in the last decade we’ve seen a widening gap between our bold ambitions – often expressed by the passing of progressive legislation – and effective prevention on the ground. 

We’ve also seen a steady decline in spending on early intervention. Meanwhile, housing has become less and less affordable. 

The result? More people affected by homelessness. More money spent. Poorer outcomes — especially for children.

We may think we can’t afford prevention — but the truth is, we can’t afford not to.

New York City’s emergency shelter system, for example, costs over $4 billion a year. 

Crisis management is expensive — and ineffective.  I don’t need to tell an audience of local authority leaders and senior officers how the costs of Temporary Accommodation are crippling councils up and down the land. We need to shift resources from crisis to prevention — upstream, into core public services and local communities.

So the new homelessness strategy's commitment to investing in affordable housing, tenant rights, and systems that stop people from falling through the cracks will be essential. But it will just be the start.

To deliver, we must:

• Set a small number of measurable goals, co-created with local areas, that reflect their reality 
• Invest in capacity, especially quality data, governance and shared infrastructure
• And focus on delivery and accountability — including by investing in dedicated prevention delivery units or taskforces.

If we want to reduce the flow into homelessness and keep it down - we must be deliberate about these three things.

Local areas are up for this. But they need support to do it well. That includes:

• Better data systems
• Clear roles and responsibilities
• And space and capability to try new approaches and learn what works (through greater investment in Research and Development
  
  

A test and learn approach — rolled out in a coordinated way across the country — will help us learn faster. But only if we test things rigorously, with empirical methods.

To conclude - prevention may not be cheap. But the alternative is worse. By investing wisely, aligning national, regional and local delivery, and holding ourselves to account, we can shift the system to deliver tangible improvements and better value across the Government's missions, achieving better results for all our citizens. 

We can stop homelessness before it starts – preventing it or making it brief, rare and non-recurring – building a stronger Britain for everyone.

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