Crisis responds to Welsh Labour's General Election manifesto

In response to Welsh Labour’s General Election manifesto and its pledges on homelessness, Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: 

“We’re delighted to see the Welsh Labour manifesto says that the party would like to prevent and quickly relieve all forms of homelessness. It’s good to see the manifesto underlines the homelessness pledges that UK Labour made last week, including raising the local housing allowance so that housing benefit meets people’s rental costs across the UK and scrapping the Vagrancy Act to help ensure people on the street in England and Wales are given support rather than being moved on by police.

“Whoever forms the next Government in Westminster has the power to put in place policies and approaches for the whole of Great Britain that can help end homelessness. The Homelessness Action Group that I chair for the Welsh Government has shown that some laws and policies made in Westminster can help or hinder efforts to tackle homelessness in Wales. We can end homelessness with the right government policies in place, so that everybody in our society can have the stability of a safe home.”

Notes

• Welsh Government’s Homelessness Action Group is chaired by Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis. The Action Group’s first report on rough sleeping has highlighted some of the non-devolved policy areas that affect homelessness in Wales. 
• Crisis’ campaign, Cover the Cost, calls for the UK Government to restore local housing allowance rates to prevent homelessness across England, Scotland and Wales.
• Crisis also has a campaign, Scrap the Act, which calls for the Vagrancy Act to be repealed across England and Wales.