Draft Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025-28

As Local Housing Authorities, South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse District Councils have a legal requirement to publish a homelessness and rough sleeping strategy. This consultation asked residents and stakeholders to have their say on the Draft Joint Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025-28, and its five key objectives. The online consultation also included a three-year action plan and the joint homelessness review, which informed the draft strategy.

On average, most respondents agreed with the five key objectives of the strategy (88 per cent). More specifically:

• 88 per cent agreed that the councils should aim to minimise the use of temporary accommodation
• 86 per cent agreed that they should aim to effectively end rough sleeping
• 87 per cent agreed that access to sustainable, long-term housing should be increased
• 88 per cent agreed that the councils should promote strong partnership working to tackle complex homelessness
• 89 per cent agreed that they should focus on early intervention to prevent homelessness

When respondents were asked whether something was missing in the draft strategy, no clear majority emerged among them, with 30 per cent answering ‘yes’ and 33 per cent saying ‘no’. Conversely, a large majority said that everything included in the draft strategy should be part of the final strategy (63 per cent).

Here you can read the full consultation report.

The feedback provided was reviewed and helped us finalise the strategy. The final Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy for 2025-28 was presented to South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils' Cabinets in October 2025 and was formally adopted on 3 November. You can read the strategy and the action plan on our websites: South/Vale.