EXCLUSIVE: Housing Secretary makes homelessness promise as he brands crisis 'heartbreaking'

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said he was urging social housing giants to 'go big, go bold and go build' and said he found it 'heartbreaking' seeing people sleeping on the streets

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Homelessness figures will start to fall “straight away”, the Housing Secretary has promised.

Steve Reed admitted it’d be a personal failure if the number of kids in temporary accommodation continues to climb. He said he was urging social housing giants to “go big, go bold and go build” and said he found it “heartbreaking” seeing people sleeping on the streets.

But he appeared to admit he was going to cut affordable house building requirements in London as he needed to prioritise homes being built.

Official stats last week revealed a record 172,420 homeless children were living in temporary accommodation in England by the end of June - the highest number since records began two decades ago.

Mr Reed told The Mirror: “It would absolutely be a personal failure if the numbers are higher at the end of this Parliament than they are now.”

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Told that the end of this Parliament - in 2029 - is a long way off, Mr Reed admitted: “Absolutely it’s quite a long way. I’m going to work with the social housing builders to get that moving as fast as we possibly can, because it is a moral stain on our country that we have so many kids living in temporary accommodations and so many people sleeping rough on the streets.

“It doubled under the Tories. We're going to get to work, and you're going to start to see those numbers go down straight away.”

He said an extra £84million had been allocated to get rough sleepers off the streets ahead of this winter, adding: “So you will see a difference immediately.”

Mr Reed met with the biggest firms in the social and affordable housing sector on Monday to ask them for “bold ideas” on how to spend the £39billion investment committed by the Government.

Ministers are hoping the 10-year investment will mean 300,000 new social and affordable homes are built over the next 10 years. Bidding for the programme will open in February.

The government has already taken steps to ramp up housing delivery, including reforms to Right to Buy and introducing a new long-term 10-year settlement for social housing rents.

But concerns have been raised after leaked plans suggested Mr Reed is considering cutting the affordable homes requirement for builders from 35% to 20% in London.

Asked about the reports, Mr Reed - who is under pressure from Labour MPs to drop the controversial plans - failed to shut down rumours. He said: “At the moment, we're getting no social housing because 35% of nothing is nothing.

“I need social housing because I cannot promise those kids in temporary accommodation a permanent roof over their own heads, I cannot promise those people shop doorways that I can get them into a decent home, if there are no new homes being built.

“So we’ve got to get the market moving again and my objective in the short term is to get those homes being built, then we’ll make sure that the right share of it is social and affordable.” An announcement on the plans is expected later this week.

Meanwhile, housing experts have warned that the Government's pledge to build 1.5 million homes in England by 2029 is at risk of failing.

Prof Paul Cheshire, who has advised former governments on planning policy, this week told BBC Panorama there was "absolutely no way" the target would be met.