Andy Burnham pledges £102m to get rough sleepers off Britain’s streets by Christmas
The Prime Minister says he feels “very passionately” about tackling homelessness, but has acknowledged that solving the problem falls not only on government, but wider society too - including community and religious organisations.
On Wednesday, Mr Burnham paid a visit to the Alex’s Place homeless facility in Newcastle, which is run by the charity Changing Lives, to announce his commitment to get rough sleepers off the street by Christmas.
Mr Burnham has committed an additional £102 million to the cause, brought in from uncommitted budgets within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
This investment includes an £8.4 million boost to the Ending Homelessness in Communities Fund, which acknowledges the work of charities, faith groups and community organisations in the sector.
The new funding will add to the £340 million which was announced last month to get long-term rough sleepers into settled housing over the next three years.
The Prime Minister has also promised to donate 15% of his salary to homelessness charities, as well as the same percentage from his earnings as an MP to local organisations, the Big Issue reported.
The prime ministerial salary is set at £75,440 for their work in No 10, and any PM is also entitled to a salary of £98,599 for their job as a member of parliament.
Mr Burnham also announced that he will host what is being called the first-of-its-kind national summit this autumn, which aims to “bring together leaders from across society – from business, finance, charities, health, faith communities and more – to ask what role each of them can play in ending rough sleeping”.
The latest annual national statistics, published by the Government in February, estimated there were 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 in England. This marks a new record and is the fourth annual increase in a row.
At that time, 43% of people sleeping on the streets were in London and the South East.
Mr Burnham said he understands that not every rough sleeper will take the offer “for their own reasons”, and also added that the government funding alone might not be enough to resolve the issue.
He told reporters: “The Government money may not fully get us there, and I’m saying to wider society, faith organisations, let’s see if we can do this together.
“Let’s see if Britain can do this. Give everybody an offer to come inside before Christmas. You know, that is just something we can do.
“We did it in the pandemic. We can do it again, and it’s a rallying call, really, that I’m putting out there today with a lot of Government money behind it.”
He also defended his record on rough sleeping as mayor of Greater Manchester, where he introduced schemes such as A Bed Every Night to provide emergency accommodation.
The number of rough sleepers initially fell, but then began to rise again, because “we were the only place providing that level of support, and understandably, people then travelled to Greater Manchester to access that support”.
He added: “So my point is, we can do this, but only if all areas are pulling in the same direction, and that’s what this funding is designed to achieve – to make this a nationwide initiative as we go into the Christmas period, getting everybody behind it.”
He said people being left to sleep on the streets “can often cost more to the state because people can be in and out of A&E, and in and out of hospital beds, and sometimes in contact with the police”.
The Government has cited research by homelessness charity Crisis which it said suggests preventing 40,000 people from becoming homeless for a year could save taxpayers around £370 million.
Rough sleeping is one form of homelessness, with people living in temporary accommodation provided by councils also considered homeless.
Official data published earlier this month showed the number of households in temporary accommodation in England had risen to a record high.
A total of 135,580 households were in accommodation ranging from flats to bed and breakfasts at the end of March, including 177,530 children.
The Prime Minister pledged as his “first instruction” on day one in No 10 to “finally end long-term rough sleeping across the UK at the earliest opportunity”, but the Government has declined to put a deadline on it.
Homelessness charities welcomed the announcement as a “strong start” that puts the country on a path to end rough sleeping, but critics said it lacked detail and substance.
Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly claimed Mr Burnham “is pledging to end it (rough sleeping) nationally without any plan for delivery”, while deputy Reform UK leader Richard Tice dismissed the pledge as “yet another vague announcement with no substances which uses our most vulnerable for political point-scoring”.
Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Gideon Amos said “sticking plasters won’t fix the homelessness crisis”.
Technology & Business Editor
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