Why is the Government running a review on homelessness spending?
In the Autumn Budget released in November 2025, the Government announced that the Treasury would undertake a review of value for money in homelessness spending across Government. One of the key asks of our Breaking the Cycle campaign was for the Government to undertake a full assessment of homelessness spending across departments, so we’re very pleased to see this being put into action now. It’s partially thanks to the hard work of our members that we’ve been able to achieve this campaign win!
This Value for Money review is a really important opportunity for our sector to achieve transformative change to the homelessness funding system. If done well, it could mean that services are better funded and people at risk of or experiencing homelessness have better outcomes. It’s also a rare opportunity to get Treasury officials around the table to talk about effective funding. We’ll be working hard over the coming months on feeding into the review to try and make this a reality.
Below we explain a few more details about the review, and how Homeless Link members can get involved.
What is the review looking at?
The Treasury’s terms of reference set out how the review aims to assess the underlying cost-effectiveness of cross-government spending on homelessness prevention and relief. Civil servants are hoping that the review will develop practical recommendations that improve efficiency, accountability, outcomes, and reduce financial pressures on councils. The review has a particular focus on supported accommodation and temporary accommodation, including exploring novel or innovative models of accommodation provision. The review’s findings are intended to feed into the Spending Review which will take place in 2027, so the review is likely to conclude by early next year.
Our influencing work so far
Homeless Link and other colleagues in the sector have already begun engaging with civil servants and ministers to influence the scope of the review, including communicating clearly to the Government that this review must not be used as a cost-cutting exercise. We know that supported accommodation providers around the country are doing their best to try and deliver good-quality services despite continuous years of financial instability and austerity-led cuts. At the same time, homelessness and rough sleeping levels have reached record highs in recent years. It’s clear that the sector cannot sustain further funding cuts.
As part of this, we have begun to articulate that value for money in homelessness spending shouldn’t necessarily mean spending less, but instead ensuring that money is spent on things that lead to positive outcomes for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. This means more investment in prevention, including in affordable and social housing; and funding services properly so that they’re able to deliver high-quality, effective support. The Government also needs to address the negative effects of policy decisions in areas such as social security spending and immigration and asylum rules, which can drive up levels of homelessness.
Join our listening sessions to get involved
So far our thinking and work on the review has been informed by our many years of working with Homeless Link members to understand the challenges they face. This is work which led to our Breaking the Cycle campaign, through which we’ve been calling for a fundamental shift in the homelessness funding model. However, we’re also keen to enable members to share their views with us now in order to feed into this review process specifically. We will be hosting two online listening sessions for Homeless Link members. You can join us from 14:00 - 15:15pm on Wednesday 8 July and 14:00 - 15:15 Tuesday 21st July.
Please note these sessions are only open to Homeless Link members. If you are not a member or are unsure of your membership status and would like to attend, please email membership@homelesslink.org.uk
Find out more
If you have any questions or thoughts about the Value for Money review or our work on it, you can reach out to us by emailing Megan.Hector@homelesslink.org.uk.