£1.8m homeless drive planned for Blackburn

A new Homelessness Prevention Forum is to be established in Blackburn with Darwen borough.

It will be created as the latest stage of the council’s drive to tackle rough sleeping and provide accommodation for those without a settled roof over their heads.

The new body is revealed in a report to Thursday’s meeting of Blackburn with Darwen Council by housing and public health boss Cllr Damian Talbot.

He also says that a new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy for 2025 is being developed by the authority.

His report reveals that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has provided a total in Whitehall grants for 2025/26 of more than £1.8million.

This includes a Homelessness Prevention Grant (HPG) of £794,388 to tackle, reduce and prevent homelessness and to provide temporary accommodation where required for families who become homeless, for example through eviction or fleeing domestic violence.

It also includes a Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant of £362,200 for 2025/26 and a Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme payment of £261,608.

Other government grants linked include the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant of £265,363.

The borough will also benefit from a slice of the £2m allocated to The Changing Futures Lancashire programme which long-term support for adults experiencing multiple disadvantage, including combinations of homelessness, substance misuse, mental health, domestic abuse and criminal history.

Cllr Talbot’s report says: “For the first time in 25/26, a new ringfence has been introduced for the HPG restricting the amount that can be spent on temporary accommodation to a maximum of 51 per cent of the total grant.

“This will have no impact on Blackburn with Darwen Council who currently have low temporary accommodation numbers and spend, and who use the vast majority of the HPG on staffing costs and activities to prevent homelessness and sustain housing solutions.

“The average proportion of HPG spent on temporary accommodation costs in the Northwest region is 30 per cent – in Blackburn with Darwen the proportion is consistently less than five per cent due to a self-funding temporary accommodation model and excellent homelessness prevention and relief

performance.

“It is proposed that initiatives will likely focus on upstream prevention activity, but these are to be refined as Blackburn with Darwen’s new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy for 2025 is developed.

“The development of this strategy will include a detailed analysis of homelessness trends and data, and the launch of a new Homeless Prevention Forum for Blackburn with Darwen.

“The forum will include representatives from across various directorates of the council as well as statutory and voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise partners, and individuals with lived experience of homelessness and rough sleeping.

“An inaugural meeting is being planned for March 2025.”