Labour’s homelessness strategy is a good start. It will take the right leadership to have an impact

Homelessness is a scar on our society and a challenge for any government.

A cocktail of a lack of affordable housing, low incomes yet soaring rents, and pressures on all of our public services have been driving and keeping homelessness high. We have record numbers in temporary accommodation (over 130,000 households) and sleeping rough, particularly on the streets of London (over 13,000 last year), and thousands more lacking a safe and secure place to call home.

Those working on the frontline of tackling homelessness told us at St Martin-in-the-Field’s Charity earlier this year that 85% of them were seeing demand for their services rise and 80% that they expected it to get worse. Homelessness is, of course, harmful to those affected but it also has an economic cost, with local authorities across the country forced into using ever more expensive temporary accommodation, and having to cut preventative approaches and services to pay those bills – a clear false economy.

It was, therefore, welcome when this government committed in its manifesto to introducing a cross-government strategy to tackle all forms of homelessness. After initial engagement with homelessness charities, including our own, things went a bit quiet with ministers having to resign due to issues with their own housing arrangements. Now 18 months in and with Christmas just around the corner, the new ministerial team have unwrapped their strategy to tackle homelessness in England – but is it up to the scale of the challenge?

The strategy starts with a recognition from the secretary of state that “a good life, based on an affordable, secure and stable home, should be available to everyone in this country”. It sets out a strong analysis of what has gone wrong and how tackling homelessness needs action from central and local government, public services, mayors and the voluntary sector. It commits to prioritising prevention, recognising the best solution to homelessness is it not occurring in the first place. It rightly identifies a lack of housing and income are root causes of homelessness and therefore action to tackle poverty and building more social housing and ensuring formerly homeless households get access to it, are really important. As a charity supporting those working on the frontline we particularly welcome the recognition that key to helping someone out of homelessness is having a skilled, experienced and empathetic support worker and, therefore, we need to invest in their training and development.

Read more:

• Labour aims to halve number of rough sleepers by 2029 with new £3.5bn homelessness strategy
• More than 380,000 people will spend Christmas homeless – what does Labour’s strategy mean for them?
• ‘The only reason I got a place is I was set on fire’: The voices behind Labour’s homelessness plan

The strategy includes specific commitments to halving those living long-term on the streets by the end of the parliament, ending the placement of families in B&Bs, improving the quality of and support in temporary accommodation, and stopping people having to sleep rough in the first place to get help. Some additional funding has been made available to support these actions, but it may well not be enough. And the ambition should be to go further and faster – the last Labour government reduced rough sleeping by two-thirds and halved the use of temporary accommodation. And during Covid, charities and government working together showed that with the right leadership and resources we could have a transformational impact.

Any strategy is only ever as good as its implementation. It has long been a scandal that people can be discharged from prisons and hospitals and end up homelessness, and so it’s welcome that the government is committing to tackle this. It will, however, take sustained leadership and resources to stop it happening in reality, particularly given all the challenges facing our prisons and health services.

The strategy also has some gaps. The most glaring is around housing benefit for private renters though local housing allowance (LHA). Private tenancies ending has become a leading cause of homelessness. The Renters Rights Act helps, but without the ability to pay the rising rents landlords demand, people will still fall into homelessness and not be able to move into private renting. Yet in the budget the chancellor kept LHA rates frozen. The government must look at this again and link LHA to actual rent levels. Otherwise, the homelessness strategy will be fatally undermined.

Similarly, we need to ensure services and charities have the right long-term funding so they can develop and maintain the responses that homeless people tell us they need, and recruit, support, pay and retain the skilled and experienced staff to deliver them.

And whilst the majority of people experiencing homelessness are UK nationals, the changes the Home Office is busily making to the rights and support that migrants and those seeking asylum are entitled to will directly increase peoples’ vulnerability to destitution and homelessness.

So whilst this strategy is a good start, will it genuinely reduce the numbers of people experiencing homelessness in 2026 and beyond? Ministers have committed to continuing to engage and reporting progress, we and no doubt Big Issue readers, will keep the pressure on for them to deliver.

Duncan Shrubsole is CEO of St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity.

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