Sajid Javid, minister for homelessness, reveals young people are sleeping rough outside his own office

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has thrown his weight behind The Independent's Christmas Appeal for the Young and Homeless Helpline, saying it has “the potential to transform lives”.

In a striking admission, the senior Cabinet minister revealed that young people sleep rough outside his own ministerial office at Horseferry Road.

“I don’t need to rely on reports and experts to remind me of the human costs of homelessness – I just need to look outside my office window in London,” he disclosed.

“As the minister responsible for tackling homelessness it’s a very real, daily reminder of the challenge we face.”

Mr Javid candidly admitted that the Government could not solve the complex problems behind rough sleeping alone, despite having invested £500m since 2010.

He hailed the Helpline at the heart of our fundraising appeal as a perfect example of charities, the media and the private sector uniting to create a unique nationwide information and advice service for young people who are at risk of having to sleep outside.

“It’s a great project that has the potential to transform lives, helping young people navigate an often complex system to access the help they need,” he declared.

“I am delighted to see that it has the support of media owner Evgeny Lebedev, and that it’s the subject of the Christmas appeal this year and I wish everyone involved the very best of luck.”

He emphasised: “Homelessness is a big, complex problem, and touches communities right across the nation. It can be tackled, must be tackled, but we all need to work together to make that happen.”

Speaking in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, he said an estimated one million households had been prevented from becoming homeless by Government-backed projects in the past seven years.

“But if we just trot out statistics, it’s very easy to forget that we’re talking about real people.

“Now the weather is getting colder and Christmas approaching, it really rams home the need to tackle this problem. More needs to be done, and more is being done.”

The minister listed projects adding up to another £500m over the coming four years, including £315m for local-authority action to prevent rough sleeping, including at least 2,000 places in low-cost, move-on accommodation.

The Homelessness Reduction Bill will get help faster to people to avoid becoming homeless, he said, and would “tackle the cause of the problem rather than the symptoms”.

And he pledged: “I’m determined to fix the broken housing market.” Action to speed up the delivery of homes would include £2.3bn on infrastructure and £2bn to accelerate construction on public-sector land.

He promised that a policy paper due in January would confront bottlenecks in the system, including developers who squat on land.

“For too long politicians have been unwilling to make tough decisions on housing – but choosing whether or not to build homes for our kids is not a tough decision,” he said.