Housing Minister Grant Shapps has welcomed publication of the first set of rough sleeping figures since he overhauled the way counts are conducted. The new figures bring the national total of rough sleepers to 1,768 on any given night - considerably higher than the 440 counted under the previous system. In a change to the previous system, all councils now provide a robust estimate or a count of those sleeping rough in their area - in order to give a clearer picture of the scale of the problem in each area of the country. And to support the work of the voluntary sector in tackling rough sleeping, the Government has announced an £18.5million package of funding for the main national homelessness charities. At the Spending Review, the Coalition Government announced a £400million investment to tackle homelessness. Whilst the majority of this funding is directed through councils to allow them to decide their priorities locally, ministers decided that there remained a compelling case for a 'Homelessness Grant' to be given directly to the voluntary sector.
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