News From Westminster- Tackling Homelessness- By Michelle Donelan MP

THIS week has been a busy one in Parliament with the highlight being a meeting with the charity Crisis, to talk about homelessness and the opportunity to follow up on some of the work I have been doing to tackle this issue in the constituency.

Following my work on the Homelessness Reduction Act, I am teaming up with Crisis to call on the Chancellor to provide money for a rent deposit guarantee scheme which will allow homeless people to access private rented accommodation and support their transition back into housing.

Homelessness cannot be solved by financial support alone, with mental health and community support also crucial, but more can be done to support those who are the most vulnerable. The current situation can put people in a tragic situation; being ready to move on and start rebuilding their lives, to then only encounter financial barriers to achieving this and I will work hard to change this.

Here in the constituency I ran the fourth of my Mature Matters forums, this time in Atworth. We had a fantastic turnout and discussed the broadest possible range of issues, from those of NHS spending and challenges, through to the issue of abandoned cars locally.

These events do always have a lively tone to them and I believe it is crucial that constituents have access to their MP and with so much content going on line these days, those who prefer to do things face-to-face should have the chance to do so and I look forward to other forums which are planned across the constituency in the run up to Christmas.

Whilst it is important for constituents to have access to their MP, equally I believe businesses should have that same channel of communication too as they employ locally and support our thriving economy. To support this I met with 12 local businesses in a forum this week to discuss the topic of Brexit. Some genuine concerns and proposals were raised, which I will be addressing with ministers in the coming months, but also a great deal of positivity around the recent change in the tone of negotiations and the boost to exports, which the fall in the value of Sterling has brought.

With the November Parliamentary recess approaching, I have been able to arrange a larger number of surgeries and would love to hear from people if they would like to speak face- to-face with me. If you would like to make an appointment then please contact me on michelle.donelan.mp@    parliament.uk or call my office on 01249 704465.

I also have the next Mature Matter forum booked for November in Bowerhill, so if you live in the area and would like to attend, then please RSVP on the above number.