Angela Rayner: ‘Westminster’s one-size-fits-all approach won’t fix homelessness’

Labour MP Angela Rayner has told Big Issue that the Westminster government’s “one-size-fits-all approach” to tackling homelessness proved a barrier as she called for greater devolution to follow Andy Burnham’s lead in Manchester.

Ashton-under-Lyne MP Rayner led Keir Starmer’s government’s efforts to address homelessness from July 2024 until she was forced to resign as housing secretary and deputy prime minister over a stamp duty scandal in September last year.

In an interview with Big Issue founder John Bird, Rayner explained why she believes giving regional leaders more power to tackle issues like homelessness in their area is a vital way of addressing almost record-high levels of people without a stable home.

“I think the challenge of government is it tries to do one-size-fits-all and actually that’s where the work I was doing with local authorities in support for devolution and what they could do for the homeless situation was really important,” said Rayner.

“I think if you try and do one-size-fits-all at one particular point, then you’ll miss your data or you’ll miss the mark. Actually being able to meet people where they’re at and really drill down into some of the challenges that people face and then work with them on what the opportunities are in their area or what are the challenges that they face and being more practical and pragmatic about that is important.

“If you look at what Andy Burnham has done across Greater Manchester working with the 10 local authorities, for example, they have A Bed Every Night, they do Housing First which is based on the Finland model. I think that you can really start to see how they’re trying to cater for what’s going on in their local area. I think central government, for me, is far too removed and far too siloed.”

Burnham has already vowed to introduce a Finland-style Housing First philosophy and ramp up council housebuilding as prime minister.

His decade-long spell as Greater Manchester mayor saw him secure greater devolution powers while Rayner has long been an advocate of a “devolution by default” approach.

The National Audit Office reported recently that the Starmer government made “good progress” on devolution with 18 new mayors able to spend almost £16 billion on transport and housing to regenerate their regions.

But a Burnham government is likely to go further: the Makerfield MP has already announced his intention to create No 10 North, moving some of 10 Downing Street’s operations to Manchester.

Read more:

• Working-class women like Angela Rayner can’t win in politics when they’re demonised in the press
• The fall of Angela Rayner emphasises the rise in power of property ownership
• Nationalisation, buses and homes for rough sleepers: This is what Andy Burnham’s Britain would look like

Rayner said the move marks a “psychology and culture that says devolution first”.

“It sets the tone and I tried to do that in government as well around the devolution agenda,” said Rayner. “We’ve got the Devolution and Empowerment Act that’s going through parliament at the moment, which is the framework to be able to deliver more and more devolution and devolved powers. I talk about putting rocket boosters up.

“When I said what’s gone wrong with this government, it’s the manifesto was great, but some of the stuff wasn’t in it that we’ve delivered that has been deeply unpopular. Other stuff that actually people really wanted to see change hasn’t been delivered to the level and to the degree that people expected and they’re impatient for that change to happen.”

Read more of the interview with Rayner in next week’s Big Issue magazine, available from Big Issue vendors from 13 July, and on the Biggest Issue, Big Issue’s new Substack.

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