Today Pauline Latham OBE, MP for Mid Derbyshire, gave a speech in the House of Commons expressing her support for the Homelessness Reduction Bill which was being debated: a new piece of legislation which aims to reduce the number of people who are homeless and give greater support to those who are sleeping rough.
Among a raft a new measures, the Bill would introduce a new duty for local authorities to take action to prevent the homelessness of anyone who is eligible for assistance and threatened with homelessness within 56 days.
In the speech, Pauline Latham expressed her support for “a Bill which endeavours to make sure that no one has to endure sleeping rough on the streets of England, that no one has to face the frightening prospect of a lack of roof over their head if a friend cannot put them up, and that no one has to be subjected to the appalling mental and physical degradation that accompanies homelessness”.
The Bill received cross-party support from all the major British political parties and was described as a "well-considered and achievable piece of legislation" by leading homelessness charity Crisis.