Last week at Mayor’s Question Time I questioned Boris Johnson on rough sleeping.
Last year the Government devolved £33.8 million to the Mayor to spend between 2011 and 2015 on commissioning pan-London rough sleeping services that were previously commissioned directly by central government.
In December 2011 the Mayor published his draft budget, which accounted for the entire £33.8 million.
However, the Mayor’s final budget in March cut £5.3 million from this amount – outlining spending of £7.5 million in 2011/12 and £21 million for the remaining three years (2011 to 2015 – including £9.5 million that will be spent this year).
In addition, the Mayor has failed to publish his Rough Sleeping Commissioning Framework for 2011/15 more than ten months after the consultation closed on 12 August 2012. This document needed to be published in order to re-let the contracts on seven rough sleeping services that expired on 31 March 2012.
I pressed the Mayor on why he took £5.3 million out of his final budget and why he has failed to deliver the framework needed to commission future services.
You can watch our exchange by following this link.
