Every rough sleeper to be offered a route off the street by Christmas, says Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham has pledged to give every person sleeping rough a route off the streets by Christmas as he unveiled the first steps in his drive to end rough sleeping in England.

The prime minister announced that new 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.

Emergency accommodation will be made available alongside help with housing, health and other needs to help people out of homelessness, backed with increased funding of £442 million.

The move comes a month after Burnham revealed that his first instruction as prime minister would be to put the country on a path to ending rough sleeping as he was unveiled at 10 Downing Street.

“No one should have to bed down in a doorway or outside a station. But we’ve seen it for so long that it feels like Westminster has started to accept it,” said Burnham.

“I won’t accept it. That’s why my first instruction as prime minister was to end rough sleeping. And it’s why today we’re getting started with a national drive to get everyone in for Christmas.

“We did it in the pandemic. We can do it again. But it needs all of us. Government will put the money in. But I’m asking leaders in communities and sectors across society to play their part locally too.

“Let’s get people out the cold. And let’s bring back hope.”

The government claimed the new policy will “not only change lives but have huge benefits for the whole country” citing research from Crisis that suggests preventing 40,000 people from becoming homeless for a year could save taxpayers around £370 million.

Sarah Elliott, chief executive of Shelter, described the pledge to get everyone sleeping rough off the streets by Christmas as “a game-changing move”. 

Big Issue founder John Bird compared Burnham’s actions to the Everyone In scheme, which saw government act quickly to bring rough sleepers indoors during the pandemic.

The scheme saw 37,000 people housed in hotels and prevented an estimated 266 deaths in the first lockdown alone, according to a University College London study.

But progress was undone following the pandemic: the most recent official government rough sleeping snapshot counted a record-high number of people on the streets last autumn. 

“Covid proved that when we decide rough sleeping is unacceptable, we can act and get people in off the streets. This Christmas commitment is a welcome return to that spirit,” said Lord Bird.

“But it’s important that people are not just brought in from the cold for a few weeks, only to be sent back out again. To that end, I’m encouraged to see the prime minister is allocating millions in tried-and-tested local solutions that offer wraparound support for long-term rough sleepers.

“Countless projects and pilots demonstrated this approach works, only to be suffocated by the underinvestment and short-termist mindset of the previous government.”

Read more:

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Areas with the greatest need will receive the largest share of the £442m funding to get people out of the cold this winter and give long-term rough sleepers a settled home and the support to keep it.

The funding will help local areas deliver more than 1,000 settled homes over the next three years, alongside intensive wraparound support to help people rebuild their lives.

Mayors will work with councils to drive action to end rough sleeping, the government said, with local areas making decisions on how to deliver help where it is needed most. 

Lord Bird added: “In all my years working in homelessness, I’ve never met a rough sleeper whose only problem was homelessness.

“Rough sleeping is a destination after years of untreated issues, like mental health problems, abuse and substance addictions – none of which simply vanishes when you get a roof over someone’s head. Instead we must start treating the causes of homelessness, and beginning the process of getting someone back into society.”

What did Andy Burnham do about rough sleeping in Greater Manchester?

Burnham set up the A Bed Every Night scheme in 2018 as part of a pledge to end rough sleeping in Greater Manchester.

The model saw everyone sleeping rough or at risk of being on the streets across the city region offered a bed space alongside personal support.

The service now offers 600 beds a night with capacity increasing over the winter period.

Since Burnham made his pledge to end rough sleeping across England, his record on rough sleeping in Manchester has been under scrutiny.

Numbers initially fell in the early years of the A Bed Every Night scheme – from 268 in 2017 to 151 in 2019, according to government single-night counts. But they rose after the Covid pandemic to 197 people counted last autumn.

But while Burnham was far from ending rough sleeping in Greater Manchester, he did manage to reduce it at a time when street homelessness has been rising elsewhere.

Analysis from homelessness expert Beth Watts-Cobbe, deputy director of I-SPHERE at Heriot-Watt University, found rough sleeping was down 26% from its 2017 peak in Greater Manchester and that it compared favourably with other cities.

Academics praised A Bed Every Night’s ability to scale up low-barrier emergency accommodation but raised concerns over the quality of accommodation.

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