Earlier this month William met with Sir Keir at Kensington Palace to brief him on the initiative, having already spoken to Gove in May when the politician came to Windsor Castle.
A Palace source confirmed the meeting with the Labour leader had taken place as William aims to make annual meetings with the opposition leader a tradition, as King Charles did when he was Prince of Wales.
As part of the Prince’s mission six locations around the UK will be used as pilot projects, which will be announced over the next couple of days, as William prepares to embark on a 48-hour tour of London to outline his vision ‘Homewards’.
William’s new project aims to create innovative new housing bringing together local authorities, businesses, housing organisations and individuals who will each develop “bespoke” action plans.
Up to £500,000 in seed funding will be made available to each authority to help develop the plans.
The Prince said: “In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need.
“Through Homewards, I want to make this a reality and over the next five years, give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented when we collaborate.”
William, who is also patron of homelessness charities Centrepoint and The Passage, continued: “It’s a big task, but I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated and I am very much looking forward to working with our six locations to make our ambition a reality.”
Although the royals have always kept their charitable ventures away from politics, William’s advisers have said government involvement is necessary to ensuring the housing is built to scale.
Earlier this month the Prince of Wales was in Peckham opening a Centrepoint youth housing scheme, made up of 33 mini-flats with rent set at affordable prices.
Due to his control over the Duchy of Cornwall William has access to a whole portfolio of large properties, and while he has considered building social housing on his estate there are no firm plans yet.
He has dismissed plans to open up royal palaces to the homeless as a “PR stunt”.
A Kensington Palace spokesman said: “He, through the decades of work that he has done, really believes that rather than just continue to shine a light on the issue, it’s time to take action.
“This isn’t about big gestures, this isn’t about a PR stunt. This is about trying to change the way that we as a society think about homelessness.”
