A number of councils are set to receive a share of £744,440 funding to help tackle rough sleeping over the next three years.

Maldon District Council, Braintree District Council and Chelmsford City Council are set to receive a share of the funding, following a successful partnership bid led by Essex County Council.

Epping Forest District Council and Rochford will also receive a share of the funding.

The additional funding, which will help tackle rough sleeping across the county up to March, will provide longer-term support with 52 accommodation units over the next three years.

The funding is provided from the Next Steps Accommodation Programme, a government scheme to help rough sleepers who are brought into emergency accommodation in response to COVID-19 and to support efforts to avoid them returning to sleeping rough.

Councillor John Spence, Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care said: “We’d like to thank our district and city partners for their fantastic work to provide short-term accommodation over the winter months.

"This longer-term award is even better news allowing us to provide stable accommodation to former rough sleepers as part of our ambition to end homeless rough sleeping in Essex.”