Government emergency COVID‑19 funding

The Government has to date made available £3.7 bn of funding to local authorities and fire and rescue authorities to help them respond directly to COVID‑19 pressures across all the services they deliver. This excludes separate funding directed through local authorities of £500m to support households on low incomes eligible for council tax support, £600m for an infection control fund and £300m to support track and trace.

The £3.7 bn COVID-19 support funding has been allocated through three separate tranches announced on the 19 March (tranche 1 of £1.6 bn), 18 April (tranche 2 of £1.6 bn) and 2 July (tranche 3 of £500 m). The funding is paid on an un-ringfenced basis under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 and can be applied for a variety of purposes including increasing support for the adult social care workforce, for services helping the most vulnerable, including homeless people as well as support for the response to the pandemic by fire and rescue services whether delivered through separate free standing entities, the GLA, Mayoral Combined authorities or county councils. MOPAC – uniquely – also receives funding through the local government finance settlement in respect of prior year council tax freeze grant so is also eligible for a share of the GLA’s COVID-19 response funding from MHCLG albeit noting that the costs associated with MPS’s front line policing response should generally be met from the Home Office via additional special grant. Any allocation of funding from the MHCLG COVID-19 support funding for MOPAC should generally be for services which outside London would normally be delivered by local authorities.

The GLA has been allocated £9.3m from the first tranche, £9.25m from the second and in common with combined authorities and fire authorities was awarded no funding in tranche 3. In terms of the distribution mechanisms £1.4 bn of the tranche 1 nationally was allocated to social care authorities with the remaining £0.2 bn allocated in proportion to shares of 2020‑21 MHCLG settlement funding – the GLA receiving a £9.3 m share of that £200m balance (i.e. its settlement funding excluding the £1.1 bn of its revenue support grant and TfL investment grant rolled in since 2017‑18 under its current local business rates retention pilot). The second tranche was distributed in line with resident population at a regional or county level and apportioned in London between the 33 local authorities and the GLA in a ratio of 96 to 4 – reflecting the relative shares of funding received by each tier in London in tranche 1.

Proposed allocations to the London Fire Commissioner (LFC) and MOPAC

As at the date of drafting the London Fire Brigade (LFB) is forecast to incur £6.7m on its COVID-19 response during 2020‑21 including supporting the work of the London Ambulance Service, PPE costs, enhanced cleaning regimes at fire stations and administrative buildings, purchasing additional technology and equipment as well as co-ordinating London wide activities through the London Resilience Group.

In addition to front line costs incurred by the Metropolitan Police Service, MOPAC has also made £m available to establish an emergency fund to support victims of domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG). This money will provide additional, emergency accommodation and wrap-around support for victims for a three to six‑month period and is being part funded from the additional business rates resource allocated to MOPAC in the Mayor’s 2020‑21 Budget from business rates. In addition, a further £0.5m has been made available to enable commissioning partners, including the VAWG sector, to maintain service delivery and availability throughout this period. This is expenditure on services and projects that would generally be delivered by local authorities elsewhere in England and therefore fall within the remit of expenditure eligible to be met from MHCLG funding.

Both the LFB and MOPAC expenditure would have been managed by fire and rescue service authorities and local authorities elsewhere in England through funding support from MHCLG. In addition, the Minister for State for Fire and Building Safety jointly located in MHCLG and the Home Office Lord Greenhalgh has announced a £6m additional COVID-19 contingency fund for fire and rescue services for which formal bids should be made by 30 September. It is an implicit expectation in the terms and conditions for this £6m contingency fund set out in Minister’s letter of 9 June that where a fire and rescue service is not a freestanding authority – such as being administered under a county council, combined authority areas and through the GLA in London – it should have received its proportionate share of the £3.7 bn MHCLG COVID-19 funding in order to qualify for extra support from this £6m fund.

In 2020‑21 resources intended for fire and rescue services and London policing accounted for £210.8m (9.5%) and £37 m (%) respectively of the GLA’s baseline approved in the MHCLG local government and fire finance settlements. It is therefore proposed that the LFC and MOPAC should receive £61m and £0.309m respectively from the total £18.55m MHCLG allocation for the GLA. This represents their respective MHCLG settlement funding shares applied to this £18.55m of MHCLG COVID-19 response funding received by the GLA to date. This funding is intended to meet part of the LFB’s COVID‑19 costs – albeit recognising there will still be a shortfall on its COVID‑19 response expenditure of nearly £5m – and contribute towards MOPAC’s expenditure on tackling domestic violence and VAWG as outlined above.

Proposed allocations to the GLA for rough sleeping services

In April 2020, £9.0m from the GLA’s first tranche of MHCLG funding, plus £1.55m of GLA and separate MHCLG funding for rough sleepers, was approved for the emergency accommodation phase of the GLA’s rough sleeping and COVID‑19 response. The balance of £0.3m was approved to support the London Resilience Team and other COVID‑19 emergency work (MD2627).

It is proposed that the balance of the £9.25m of the second tranche MHCLG funding not allocated to the LFC and MOPAC - £7.180m – be allocated to the GLA to provide services to rough sleepers in London at risk of COVID-19. In a letter to the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, dated 13 May 2020, the Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing stated that the emergency funding from the Government ‘… is intended to cover your spend to help rough sleepers into emergency accommodation, and it is also my expectation that this supports your work to help rough sleepers as we enter the next steps and recovery phase’.

The Government is also making available £105m nationally to local authorities to enable them to continue to provide emergency/interim accommodation for rough sleepers at risk of COVID-19 and to fund longer term solutions to their homelessness. Most of this funding will be allocated following a process of co-production, with bids submitted by 20 August. In the meantime, MHCLG is giving pre-allocations where there is a demonstrable need to do so urgently. On this basis, £9m has been pre-allocated to the GLA.

It is further proposed that £1m of Government funding allocated to the GLA from its Rough Sleepers Initiative and £1m of GLA budget previously earmarked for other rough sleeping services also supplements the £12.18m set out above, to be used for the same purpose. The total of £18.18m will be spent on temporary accommodation, support, food and other provision for rough sleepers who need to self-isolate, as well as services and longer-term accommodation to enable them to move on and rebuild their lives. A detailed explanation as to how these resources will be deployed is set out in the next section.

Summary of current and proposed rough sleeping response

Rough sleepers are significantly more likely to have underlying health conditions than the wider population, and are far less likely to be in a position to follow many aspects of Public Health England guidance, for example, self-isolation, social distancing and handwashing. Further details are set out in MD2627.

On 21 March, the Mayor announced that Londoners sleeping rough would be given vital protection from COVID-19 by securing an initial 300 hotel rooms in which they could self-isolate over the coming weeks. The GLA swiftly secured 14 hotels with around 1,400 rooms and related support, catering and other services – as well as transport to the hotels. By 14 July, almost 1,600 people had been accommodated and supported in hotels procured by the GLA – with a peak of over 1,300 guests on a given night. The London boroughs have also provided hotels and other temporary accommodation for rough sleepers in the capital as part of the response to COVID-19.

Around £20.7m has been spent to date to provide temporary accommodation and other associated services to rough sleepers at risk of COVID-19 until the end of July. In June, as lockdown started to ease, the next steps of the operation began, with people being supported to move on and the number of hotel spaces reducing. However, it is anticipated the accommodation will continue to be needed for many months to come due to the lack of move on options for many of those in the hotels. The estimated continuing cost for the hotels and associated services from August to the end of March 2021 is £14.76m, bringing the total cost to an estimated £35.48m. Taking into account the previously approved funding of £10.55m, there is a funding shortfall for this element of the operation of c£24.93m.

*These costs include contingency for loss and damage at the hotels not covered by insurance, estimated at £1.29m.

Accommodating rough sleepers in hotels has been a highly successful immediate response to a public health emergency, but it is not a long-term solution to homelessness. As lockdown has eased, the next phase of the operation has begun. The GLA and London boroughs, working with the NHS and Public Health England and supported by MHCLG, have agreed a Next Steps Strategy. This includes agreement to implement the Mayor’s In For Good principle, which is implemented across London during the winter for rough sleepers in severe weather emergency provision provided by the boroughs and the GLA. In For Good means that no-one needs to leave emergency accommodation without an offer of support, so that they do not return to rough sleeping.

Costs being incurred for the In For Good phase of the rough sleeping COVID-19 response include securing private rented sector (PRS) accommodation and providing support for people moving into these homes, employment services and immigration advice and support. The total cost of this phase for those in the GLA-procured temporary accommodation is estimated at c£11.77m. After deducting costs that may be met from other approved or agreed funding programmes, there is a funding shortfall of c£4.53m for this phase of the response.

The total funding shortfall for the GLA’s rough sleeping COVID-19 response before taking into account the requests for expenditure approved in this MD is c£29.46m. As outlined above it is proposed that £18.18m of this is met from a combination of a portion of the second tranche of the Government’s emergency funding for local authorities (£7.18m), the pre-allocation from the Government’s COVID-19 rough sleeping funding (£9m), funding allocated to the GLA from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG’s) Rough Sleepers Initiative (£1m) and GLA budget to be diverted from other rough sleeping services and projects (£1m). This still leaves a significant shortfall – c£11.28m until the end of the financial year - and the GLA is currently seeking to secure further funding from the Government from the £105m COVID-19 rough sleeping fund. At the time of writing available funding has not exceeded payments made and this is closely monitored whilst additional funding from the Government is anticipated.

In order to meet the urgent need for accommodation and services for rough sleepers, direct awards of contracts for these will continue to be made. To that end, a delegation is sought to the Executive Director of Housing and Land and the Deputy Executive Director for Housing and Land, acting jointly or separately, to approve the allocation of monies within the overall £18.18m budget including the approval of exemptions from the requirement within the Contracts and Funding Code to run competitive procurements, without the need for a further decision form. In approving the direct awards, officers will ensure that each such award be compliant with the Government’s Procurement Policy Note – Responding to COVID-19 – Information Note 01/20 issued in March, which states that:

Contracting authorities may enter into contracts without competing or advertising the requirement so long as they are able to demonstrate the following tests have been met:

• there are genuine reasons for extreme urgency;
• the events that have led to the need for extreme urgency were unforeseeable;
• it is impossible to comply with the usual timescales in the public contracts regulations; and
• the situation is not attributable to the contracting authority.

The aims of the funding approved for allocation in this decision are to:

• contribute £1.761m towards the LFB’s COVID-19 response costs including supporting the work of the London Ambulance Service, expenditure on PPE for frontline fire fighters, enhanced cleaning regimes at fire stations and administrative buildings, purchasing additional technology and equipment as well as co-ordinating London wide projects through the London Resilience Group;
• enhance the resources available to MOPAC by £0.309m to support its work directly and with partners to support victims of domestic violence and other projects to tackle VAWG;
• to support rough sleepers at risk of COVID 19 to help prevent the spread of the virus, by enabling them to self-isolate and otherwise follow Government guidance around COVID 19 through £18.18m of additional funding to be approved via this decision. This will not only assist rough sleepers, but also reduce risk to the wider community; and
• as lockdown eases, to support rough sleepers provided with interim accommodation procured by the GLA to move on and rebuild their lives.

Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as public authorities, the Mayor and GLA are subject to a public-sector equality duty and must have ‘due regard’ to the need to (i) eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; (ii) advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and (iii) foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (all except the last being “relevant” protected characteristics).

The contributions provided to MOPAC and the LFB approved in this decision will be applied to meet their respective COVID-19 response costs across London focusing in the former case on victims of violent crime and domestic abuse (i.e. services which outside London would have been delivered through local authorities using MHCLG funding) and in the latter to their wider response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those with protected characteristics are over-represented among domestic violence victims and VAWG and the proposed funding for MOPAC to help funding their work to support these groups is likely to have positive impacts on them.

In relation to rough sleeping of those seen rough sleeping in 2018 19:

• 51 per cent were non-UK nationals;
• 50 per cent had a mental health need;
• 16 per cent were women;
• most of those seen rough sleeping (56 per cent) were in the 26 45 age group;
• eight per cent were under 26 years old;
• 12 per cent were over 55; and
• five people were under 18.

Those with protected characteristics of race and disability are over-represented among rough sleepers. As the client group for these services is people with a history of sleeping rough, the proposals in this paper are likely to have positive impacts on these groups. Further it is likely to foster good relations between people who share a characteristic and those who do not via the work done.

Risks – LFC and MOPAC

There are no specific risks for the LFB and MOPAC arising from this decision as the funding allocated mitigates against their COVID-19 response expenditure.

Risks – rough sleeping support

Mayor’s strategies and priorities

Since 2016, the Mayor has coordinated efforts through his ‘Life off the Streets’ taskforce to identify, implement, lobby for, and monitor the effectiveness of interventions to tackle rough sleeping. In his London Housing Strategy, the Mayor set out his aim that there should be a sustainable route off the streets for every rough sleeper in London. In June 2018, he published his ‘Rough Sleeping Plan of Action’ which outlines the steps that need to be taken by City Hall, the Government, and others to achieve this.

Since taking office, the Mayor has been expanding the pan-London rough sleeping services the GLA funds and commissions. These services collectively form his ‘Life off the Streets’ programme. They are services for rough sleepers, or initiatives to tackle rough sleeping, that cannot or would not be provided at a London borough level, as they are pan‑London or multi‑borough in their remit.

Conflicts of interest

The drafting officers have no known conflicts of interest.

This decision requests approval to allocate the GLA’s second tranche of MHCLG COVID-19 support funding of £9.25m as follows:

• £1.761m to be allocated to the London Fire Brigade to partly meet its latest forecast £6.7m of COVID-19 response costs for 2020 21;
• £0.309m to MOPAC to enhance its funding to support victims of domestic violence and other projects to tackle VAWG; and
• £7.180m allocated to the GLA for its rough sleeping response to supplement the £9m of MHCLG tranche one funding allocated in MD2627.

Including the £7.180m above it also recommends that total of £18.180m expenditure will be spent on accommodation and services for rough sleepers at risk of COVID-19 between July 2020 and 31 March 2021. The remaining £11m applies:

• the GLA’s pre-allocation of £9m from the Government’s COVID-19 rough sleeping fund;
• £1m from MHCLG from their Rough Sleeping Initiative fund for 2020/21; and
• expenditure of £1m by reprioritising the GLA’s existing rough sleeping budget.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor fall within the statutory powers of the Authority to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to promoting social development within Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

• pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
• consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
• consult with appropriate bodies.
Provision of section 121 grants to the LFB and MOPAC

Pursuant to section 121(1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the “GLA Act”), the Authority may pay grants towards expenditure incurred by a functional body for the purpose of, or in connection with, the discharge of the functions of that body. To that end, the Authority may make the grants to the LFB and MOPAC set out in decision 1. The officers should note that the only conditions, which may be placed on the use of the grants by the LFB and MOPAC, is that the grants be used for (a) the discharge of the relevant body’s functions; and (b) revenue expenditure.

Provision of accommodation to rough sleepers

More specifically, officers have requested approval for additional expenditure of £18.18m on temporary accommodation, support and food for rough sleepers at risk of COVID 19. Section 31(3) of the GLA Act prohibits the Authority’s incurring expenditure to provide, inter alia, social services where such provision may be made by a London borough council or any other public body. However, pursuant to sections 31(5A) and 31(5B) of the GLA Act, the incurring of expenditure for the following by the Authority falls outside the said prohibition:

• the provision of services and facilities for promoting improvements in or protecting public health; and
• the doing of anything for the purposes of, or relating to, housing and regeneration.

In light of this, the GLA’s general and subsidiary powers provide the necessary statutory basis for the expenditure requested in the second decision.

In taking the decisions requested of him, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Procurement of accommodation and services

Officers are reminded to comply with the requirements of the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code in relation to the procurement of accommodation and other services for rough sleepers during the current COVID 19 crisis. As set out in MD2627, the Authority must have regard to the current guidance, which has been provided by the Cabinet Office as at the date of any decision, in relation to urgent procurements during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Provision of support to EEA citizens

As indicated in paragraph 3.3 above, a large element of the support, which is detailed in this report, may be provided to non-UK rough sleepers. In undertaking any projects aimed at assisting this group of rough sleepers, officers should take note of the UK government’s derogation from Article 24(2) of the Free Movement Directive as regards the need to provide equal treatment between UK and EEA citizens during the first three months following EEA citizens’ arrival in the UK (the “Derogation”). Furthermore, officers should have regard to the fact that the Derogation is currently suspended until 31 December 2020. If the Authority wishes to use any of its resources to provide rough sleeper support services for newly arrived EEA citizens after that date, the Authority must first obtain written approval from the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Delegation

Any function exercisable by the Mayor on behalf of the Authority may also be exercised by a member of the Authority’s staff albeit subject to any conditions, which the Mayor sees fit to impose. To this end, the Mayor may make the requested delegation to the Deputy Executive Director of Housing and Land and Executive Director of Housing and Land, if he so chooses.