Of course homelessness is linked to Tory policies | Letters

Letters: Cuts have contributed significantly to a crisis of housing affordability and growing homelessness

The homelessness minister, Heather Wheeler, told the Guardian she does not know why the number of rough sleepers has gone up so significantly in recent years but does not accept that the rise is related to cuts to social security or council services (Report, 18 March, theguardian.com). She must be unaware of the abundance of evidence demonstrating that such cuts have contributed significantly to a crisis of housing affordability and growing homelessness.

Last September the National Audit Office warned that homelessness is "likely to have been driven by welfare reforms" and observed that the ending of private sector tenancies is the biggest single driver of statutory homelessness in England. This was predicted in 2014 by the work and pensions select committee and in 2016 the UN committee on economic, social and cultural rights noted "with concern" the impact reforms of social security have had on the right to adequate housing.

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