Andy Burnham has pledged to give every person sleeping rough in England a route off the streets by Christmas as he unveiled the first steps in his drive to end rough sleeping.
The prime minister announced that accommodation and support will be rolled out across England this winter, based on the A Bed Every Night model he pioneered as Greater Manchester mayor and backed by £442 million in funding.
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Speaking exclusively to Big Issue last week as he visited homelessness charity Changing Lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne following his announcement, Burnham said: “To me it says something about who we are, what kind of country we want to be. If people are sleeping rough on the streets, it says we don’t have that care for people we should have.”
But can Burnham deliver his ‘moral mission’ in time for Christmas? The countdown has begun.
What else is in this week’s Big Issue?
Can transforming empty pubs save the high street?
More than a million buildings are currently lying empty across the country – including thousands of commercial properties that remain boarded up as high street footfall continues to decline. Paradoxically, we also have 135,580 households in temporary accommodation and a social housing list that would take – according to Shelter – 119 years to clear at the present rate. Isn’t there an obvious solution here? We’ve looked at the underlying causes behind retail’s collapse, and gone to meet people who’ve repurposed empty buildings for the benefit of their communities, to find out how they did it and see how we can replicate their success.
Natalie Imbruglia’s Letter to my Younger Self
An early belief that stardom was imminent led to a role in Neighbours and a pop career, but self-confidence wasn’t easy to hold on to.
