The COVID pandemic has meant that the issues regarding homelessness have been in the spotlight, and therefore, it has been more important to address them during a time of need. The problem is that it has taken such a pandemic to take action, once COVID has become apart of the past what is it to say that homelessness will lose its funding and attention. Both the unemployed and homeless people face the return back to the streets of the UK when there is less priority to keep those vulnerable safe from such virus. This is why it is important to sustain the level of support that has been given over the past year, and to possibly increase it in order to meet the 2024 goals of eradicating homelessness.

Rural homelessness has doubled in the last 2 years and the sharp increase is now greater than in our towns and cities More investment and publicity is needed for rural housing services to reduce these growing figures.

Vulnerable asylum seekers in the UK are often placed in ‘squalid’ housing provisions, leaving thousands of refugees no option but to live in damp and dirty homes, as this is their only safety net from homelessness. The appalling conditions and living in these abject conditions can lead to serious health complications, raising serious safeguarding concerns as the country’s treatment of asylum seekers falls under deep scrutiny.

During the pandemic, 700,000 renters were served with Section 21 notices, aka No-Fault Eviction notices. These allow Landlords to evict tenants without a reason at short notice, as opposed to section 8 evictions where a tenant is served on the grounds that they have broken the terms of their tenancy. Thankfully, for much of the pandemic, there has been a much needed ban on evictions, however, since the 1st of June this ban has ended leaving many renters threatened again with losing their home to these unfair evictions. Identifying the housing insecurity Section 21 creates for renters and its link to revenge evictions and rogue landlords. The Government promised in its 2019 Manifesto to abolish No-fault evictions as part of their 'Better deal for renters' pledge. However, no such Bill to this effect has been introduced. While there had been consultations during 2019 for a Renters’ Reform Bill, which includes the abolition of section 21, the government has since stalled excusing their inaction on dealing with the urgency of the pandemic. Now, however, given the cliff edge situation many households face, threatened with homelessness in the midst of a pandemic due to the end of the Covid ban on evictions, there is an urgency for this bill to be passed for the sake of thousands of people unfairly being evicted from their homes. This petition calls on the government to deliver on its campaign promise now! Finally, put an end to one of the leading causes of homelessness. And make renting a secure tenancy option. Renters deserve better, No more excuses! #endsection21 #rentersarewaiting

Since the Grenfell fire in June 2017 which claimed 72 lives, thousands of other housing blocks nationwide have been identified as having flammable cladding systems which contributed to the Grenfell tragedy. Residents in these housing blocks are facing ridiculously high costs for insurance, waking watches and remedial works to remove the cladding, despite them not being at fault. The Government pledged £5 billion to remove all ACM Grenfell style cladding on buildings over 18 meters, however this is not enough money and 4 years on over 300 buildings still have ACM cladding systems. This figure does not include other flammable cladding systems and buildings under 18 meters. Residents live in constant fear of fires in their buildings. Sarah, a first-time buyer, bought her flat in Leeds at 28. At 29 she went bankrupt due to the crisis. Sarah will not be the only one to go bankrupt - thousands, if not millions, more will go bankrupt too. The Government must protect all residents from the cost of fixing unsafe buildings and they need to make more funding available so that all buildings can be made safe in the next 12 months.

In 2019, there was 280,000 people made homeless according to Shelter. This in itself highlights how the UK should follow in Scotland and Wales' footsteps by abolishing the RTB scheme this will help to protect the social housing and will allow for local authorities to house families on waiting lists. One of the main issues surrounding RTB is that the amount of social housing that is sold off, is almost never replaced as the UK Government previously promised due to a severe lack of funding within the housing markets. It can also be seen through Government statistics that some social housing is sold for around 5 times the price of the original Right To Buy price, showing how the RTB scheme is not so much in the peoples favour but now rather private landlords and for private developers sales. Join the fight of #goodbyeRTB and help us abolish the scheme that no longer favours the UK's people.

Young people are becoming more and more unlikely to own their own home due to the lack of affordable housing and the high prices of these so called 'affordable' houses. This is increasing youth homelessness and driving those who do own a home into poverty. 121,000 16-24 year olds were homeless or at risk of homeless in the UK in 2020, this is not acceptable and action is needed from the government to prevent this figure from rising even further as time goes on.

People died and many are suffering. The wrong people are being forced to pay and live in mental turmoil not knowing what is going to happen with no clear news on how this will be resolved. It’s simple mega rich should pay money back not residents who bought or rent property’s that were built not fit for purpose

Leaseholders in buildings over 18 meters high or that have more than six floors will have the remedial costs paid, but the many thousands of leaseholders in apartment blocks with fewer floors or that are less than 18 meters high will have to cover the costs themselves. The changes in the law regarding the specification, testing and suitability for purpose of cladding and insulation materials was long overdue, but it was never the fault of any leaseholder that developers were allowed to rely on inadequate tests to validate unfit materials, and it was never the fault of any leaseholder that the new laws governing the selection of materials were to be applied retrospectively. The new laws apply to ALL apartment blocks, NOT just those with more than six floors or that are more than 18 meters high, so it is is perverse and grossly unfair that the financial support does not apply to all affected leaseholders. I appreciate there is an argument held by some that taxpayer's money should not be used for this purpose in any case. Even so, whatever the rights and wrongs are with that particular point of view, the treating of leaseholders differently depending on the height of the building they live in is arbitrary. It goes against natural justice and cannot be justified by rational argument.

Leaseholders have been left to pay to remediate the institutional failures left by Developers and anyone involved in approving as safe the use of flammable material. We are VICTIMS and should not foot the bill. Robert Jenrick has left all Leaseholders living in properties below 4 storey in the dark and more worried than ever. We risk bankruptcy, homelessness, chronic stress and in the worst cases suicide as some are feeling unable to cope.

Paying benefits to landlords and letting agencies can lead to evictions, certainly right now during the pandemic. It also weakens the tenants' positions in other ways. 1. Such tenants lose the overview of how much gets paid when and to whom because they have no access to that information. This means that tenants can be getting into rent arrears without being aware of it. Mistakes are sometimes made without tenants having any knowledge of them. 2. A great deal of postal mail is currently going missing because of the pandemic and many council offices and other offices are closed. Some offices have been closed since the start of the first national lockdown in March 2020. This means that the communication between benefit-paying agencies and tenants can go awry without tenants being aware of it and this can even result in benefits having been cut without tenants being aware. 3. In practice, such tenants have to rely on their landlords and letting agents to learn about any rent arrears and the size of such rent arrears and often will have to take the landlords and letting agencies’ word for it. That is certainly often the case right now, with the pandemic hampering so many councils and other organisations. Tenants and letting agencies often only let their tenants know that there is a problem after arrears have accrued substantially as this makes it much easier to evict tenants and it makes it possible to overcome coronavirus eviction regulations. (Some landlords even have their own "guy at the council".) 4. Each of these three aforementioned points can lead to eviction notices and eviction proceedings. It is currently much harder for tenants to counter the threat of eviction, because of the pandemic. Even if the tenant is successful and manages to stop an eviction, it takes away resources from various parties including the courts. It is stressful and time-consuming for most tenants. Stress lowers disease resistance. 5. When benefit payments go to landlords and letting agents instead of to tenants, this weakens the tenants’ financial standing as the banks do not see these payments coming in to the tenants' bank accounts, which classifies tenants in a lower income bracket. This can mean that certain options are not available to tenants. It can lead to higher and additional expenses for these tenants as well as to extra paperwork. 6. Not letting tenants handle their own payments weakens their financial skills. 7. Not allowing people with lower incomes to receive their own benefits and pay their own rents is a form of socio-economic discrimination. If there are budgeting concerns, then it would be better to put such tenants in touch with budgeting consultants or pair them up with peers or others who can support such tenants if needed. All of the above applies equally to housing benefits paid by councils or the DWP and portions of Universal Credit paid by the DWP. I was evicted in 2010 when I was 50 and I became homeless back then, briefly. I was unaware at the time that my housing benefits were not going to my landlady. I found out a few years later, when I managed to repay my landlady in full. (The latter had no effect at all on my credit score, in spite of having gotten a statement from the court.) At my current address, a great deal of my postal mail goes missing or is delayed by up to as much as 12 months, sometimes. Last year (2020), one letter from the council took 5 months to arrive and many packages went missing. I don't know how many letters I have not received, but I recently found out about several important letters from the council that I never got last year. A letter from another council from which I had requested old council tax information went missing as well. I am not the only one whose mail has gone missing since the start of the pandemic; the BBC has reported on this several times, such as here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55652461 And we all wrestle with the uncertainty that the lockdown brings with regard to what "the new normal" is. We don't know what to expect of various services, we often can't enquire in person as the offices are closed and many of us are probably heeding the request not to burden government agencies too much with our questions right now. Renewing my driving licence also took four, five months in 2020, after all, because of Covid. This pandemic is affecting us all in many ways, more than most of us are aware of. Housing benefits should always go to tenants so that when something goes wrong, tenants will be able to notice it right away.

At a time when many people are facing financial difficulties, it makes house purchase much more attainable, and keeps the housing market buoyant.