Prevention key to get homeless off streets by Christmas, PM told

Burnham announces doubling of homelessness funding at first national rough sleeping summit in Downing Street

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Andy Burnham’s government will announce its first Budget tomorrow, set to deliver a £432 million boost to ensure homeless people are off the streets by the end of this year, bringing the total it wants to spend to end rough sleeping to almost £900m by the end of this parliament.

Speaking at a rough sleeping summit in Downing Street, Mr Burnham said: “It doesn’t mean that everybody will be able to take up the offer and everybody will be able to have their life turned around.

“But the fact that we give them that offer will put enough hope in their heart that something will be coming and something will change as we go into the new year.”

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: “I’m optimistic that it’s time that we can really do this.

“We can do better this winter and offer everyone that route off the streets, and we can find ways of making those routes stick.”

Mr Burnham also defended his record while mayor of Greater Manchester against criticisms from Conservatives, saying figures “came right down” but the system faltered when people started travelling to the area to take advantage of the offer of a bed.

He suggested that his nationwide scheme will be more effective.

Official annual rough sleeping counts in England more than doubled under the Tories, rising from 1,768 people in 2010 to 3,898 counted on a single night in autumn 2023.

A National Audit Office 2024 report concluded that the last two Tory governments failed to tackle the crisis, pointing to a severe shortage of social housing, rising private rents and social security cuts.

The most recent national statistics estimated there were 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 in England.

Housing campaign groups welcomed the Labour government’s announcement but urged Mr Burnham to go further to prevent people from falling into rough sleeping in the first place.

Generation Rent chief executive Holly Williamson said: “Preventing homelessness must also be part of the answer.

“Renters facing unaffordable rents and high energy bills can be left choosing between falling into debt and losing their home.

“The government must recognise that tenants cannot keep absorbing rent increases they cannot afford.

“Alongside this investment, it must reconsider its opposition to rent limits and act to keep people in their home.”

Housing campaign group SHAC’s secretary and co-founder, Suzanne Muna, said that the funding will “only act as a temporary sticking of plaster unless the government tackles the root cause of the emergency: the systemic lack of genuinely affordable, secure social housing.”

She said: “For this pledge to work, the £900m must not be channelled into the pockets of private landlords or used to prop up a commercialised social housing model that prioritises surpluses over people.

“Instead, the government must direct this funding towards a massive programme of building council housing with secure tenancies, and capped rents and service charges.”

Ms Muna called rough sleeping “the most visible manifestation of a completely broken housing system,” adding: “Emergency beds and temporary interventions are meaningless if people are simply discharged back into an abusive, unregulated private rental sector or a failing social housing sector that traps them in poverty.”

She called for the government to introduce an immediate freeze on rents and a legally binding cap on extortionate service charges, saying: “We need structural change and genuine tenant and resident power, not just summits.”

Crisis chief executive Matt Downie said the plans are “essential to making lasting progress” and that ensuring everyone a route off the streets will save lives.

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