Britain needs a new system to tackle homelessness. Here’s how Andy Burnham can change it

In homelessness, we face what I call the paradox of progress.

The evidence for what works to prevent homelessness is stronger than ever. We have progressive legislation. Governments have adopted test and learn approaches. Local leaders have started embracing a culture of improvement. Undoubtedly, we’ve made progress.

And yet, homelessness has kept rising. Too many children are growing up without a stable place to call home. Why?

The hard but necessary truth is this. The systems within which we operate are doing what they were designed to do. They’ve been configured to respond once people reach crisis, not to prevent crisis from happening.

This is especially important as Andy Burnham has made clear that he will prioritise homelessness. He began his term as prime minister with a commitment to end long-term rough sleeping, as he did as mayor of Greater Manchester. Over time his focus in Greater Manchester broadened to prevention and supporting people to live well. The logic of this remains from his new perspective in Downing Street.

To break the cycle of crisis responses we need to think differently. We need to think of homelessness as a systems failure, not a personal one, and to design new systems that are built for prevention.

Prevention is not the absence of crisis. Rather, it’s the presence of systems that make crisis less likely. It requires noticing sooner, acting earlier, and designing environments that allow people to thrive: fewer families in temporary accommodation, fewer children growing up without a stable home.

To deliver prevention at scale we must invest in institutions, people, processes, and feedback loops that connect this ambition to everyday practice. Good policies do not themselves lead to good outcomes. They require systems that deliver them.

This starts with being ruthlessly clear about what outcomes we seek. This means not just counting how many households are in temporary accommodation placements and how many individuals are rough sleeping snapshots, but measuring real, systemic progress. The outcomes that matter are a sustained reduction in new cases of homelessness, in how long children or adults remain homeless.

So first we must set clear and purposeful goals. We should measure what matters most, with data that is public, comparable and people-focused.

Next, embed systems thinking. We must map risk pathways, feedback loops, and policy interdependencies across housing, health, education, and justice.

Shared accountability must be established. That means pooled budgets, joint metrics, and mechanisms that align incentives across services and sectors at local, regional and national levels.

Then, we need greater transparency on how resources flow and whether they deliver results. That includes longer-term commissioning models, prevention-aligned funding, and performance dashboards that centre on impact, not inputs.

We must strengthen the delivery chain that links policy decisions in Whitehall, Holyrood, Cardiff or Belfast with frontline teams who deliver them. This means investing in regional and local capacity, data systems and delivery support structures that close the gap between strategy and practice.

Next, we should invest in evidence infrastructure so the system can learn and adapt in real time. That means embedding continuous improvement routines, creating space for safe failure, and scaling mechanisms like test and learn that make experimentation and evaluation the norm.

Finally, we must match ambition with big moves that match the scale of the crisis we face, such as converting homeless hostels to Housing First accommodation with support, or creating a national prevention endowment. Bold actions reset expectations and catalyse change.

Our inspiration is drawn from other fields where systems have successfully embedded evidence and built cultures of continuous improvement: curbing smoking to improve public health, compulsory seat belts to embed road safety, raising attainment in schools with evidence-based practice, using behavioural science to change consumers’ behaviour, and embedding a rigorous learning culture to enhance safety in aviation.

These examples show what’s possible when systems – however complex – commit to understanding what works and act on that understanding. Homelessness should be no different.

This is a hinge moment. Crisis is everywhere. Budgets are strained. Services exhausted. But in this moment of strain, there is also clarity.

We know more than ever about what’s broken. We know what works. And we know how to begin.

This is a call to action. Systems builders, policy leaders, funders, public servants, employers, schools, health services, community groups, and concerned citizens all have a role to play. If we invest in the infrastructure for prevention, we can build a system that ends homelessness and keeps it ended.

There is a smarter path forward, that we believe Andy Burnham has already embarked upon: one that focuses on shifting systems and conditions, supported by disciplined learning over time.

Read more:

• Nationalisation, buses and homes for rough sleepers: This is what Andy Burnham’s Britain will look like
• Andy Burnham’s approach to housing could put him on a collision course with Donald Trump
• Homelessness stagnated in Labour’s first year – but ministers warned not to mistake it for progress

What is required is not better awareness, louder outrage, or more sophisticated rhetoric. It is discipline: the discipline to ask better questions, to use evidence with care and humility, and to design systems that prevent harm rather than manage its consequences. Ending homelessness is not a technical puzzle to be solved once, but a collective endeavour that demands ambition, learning, and sustained leadership over time.

Only by embracing a prevention-first mindset, supported by evidence, infrastructure and shared accountability will we deliver the outcomes we want.

If we want to end homelessness and keep it ended, we need a system that does more than respond. We need one that learns, adapts, and prevents. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design.

Ligia Teixeira is chief executive of the Centre for Homelessness Impact and co-editor of How To Use Evidence To End Homelessness (Bristol Policy Press, 2026)

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