By Lord Kerslake, Peabody Chair and Lead on Kerslake Commission.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been the biggest peacetime emergency most of us have every faced.

It has impacted on every one of our lives and for many it has taken a heavy toll, particularly on the most vulnerable.

There will be many lessons to be learnt about our response to the pandemic – things that went well, and those that didn’t.

One initiative that has been almost universally hailed as a success is the Government’s swift action to ensure that when the pandemic first hit, anyone who was street homeless was provided with Covid-secure accommodation where they could shield from the virus.

Just three days after the Prime Minister announced the first lockdown, the then homelessness Minister Luke Hall MP wrote to all local authorities and giving the instruction to bring ‘Everyone In’ – coining a phrase in the process.

So much good was done in addition to finding people a temporary place to stay and that is why it was so important to capitalise on this and embed the good that came from something so terrible.

Which is how the concept of a Commission bringing all the agencies together to examine in detail what happened came about. A group of experts – including those with lived experience – to analyse what worked but who would not shy away from what didn’t.

The health risks to the general population have been grave during the pandemic.

For those who are homeless and sleeping on the streets, health risks are enormous in normal times but during the pandemic they were especially high.

‘Everyone In’ had one simple but powerful aim – to address that risk by getting people sleeping rough into secure accommodation. By and large, it succeeded in that goal.

Praise must be given to Dame Louise Casey and the team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the response of local government, the health service and providers in the homelessness and voluntary sector, but also, and importantly, to the Government as a whole, for providing the necessary funding and support to enable it to happen.

What we have seen from the last 16 months is that with the right combination of government support and collaboration across, and between, the key service providers, it is possible to rough sleeping.

Of course the circumstances of the pandemic were unique – there were unused rooms available in hotels that could be drawn on for example.

But it demonstrated beyond doubt what is possible.

This interim report has been produced in time to make a contribution to the Comprehensive Spending Review. And there is no doubt that the increased funding made available was critical factor in the success of Everyone In.

Calculating how much additional funding this involved has been a challenge for the team, but we estimate that an extra £82m per annum, or 32% on top of the planned increase in rough sleeping reduction spending, would be involved.

For me, this is a small price to pay to maintain and build on the advances that were made and the lives that could be saved.

However it was not just the amount of funding that was important, but its flexibility.

Local providers could respond in the way that they thought best met the needs of those requiring support.

This flexibility must be maintained along with longer term funding, not annual settlements, so that service providers can properly plan ahead.

But we can look at the issue of street homelessness in isolation. We need to think about what contributed to people having to sleep rough and what can be done to stop that happening to others.

Again, the pandemic response provides us with lessons.

Our Commission has found that affordability is a key factor, with the £20 uplift in Universal Credit and the change in Local Housing Allowance playing a crucial role in this. They should be maintained.

What may seem like a tiny margin could keep thousands of people from experiencing the truly traumatic experiencing of having nowhere but the streets to sleep.

Addressing long standing issues, such as the supply of genuinely affordable homes, and the approach of landlords to supporting residential tenants and avoiding evictions are equally important and are addressed in our recommendations.

What will happen if we revert to the past and fail to learn the lessons of Everyone In?

All the signs from our Commission are that the situation will get worse, not better, and homelessness and rough sleeping will surge.

That would be an enormous lost opportunity for the Government to deliver on its rough sleeping commitment, and a personal tragedy for those who are affected.

We are at a pivotal moment. I fervently hope that the Government does the right thing and takes forward the recommendations in this interim report.