Burnham makes ending rough sleeping his first policy pledge as prime minister
BBC News 2026-07-20 13:23:07
Context: Andy Burnham, the new prime minister, has made ending rough sleeping his first policy pledge, aiming to provide 1,200 homes and intensive support for at least 3,000 people, with an additional £340m in funding. Burnham made the announcement during his first speech in Downing Street, emphasizing the government's commitment to "investing in people's success rather than paying for failure." He also visited a homelessness charity, The Passage, in Victoria, London, hours before the speech.
Key Facts
- The government will provide an additional £340m to support the policy of ending rough sleeping, which is expected to provide 1,200 homes and "intensive support" for at least 3,000 people.
- Andy Burnham, as the mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017, pledged to end rough sleeping in the area by 2020, but figures published in 2025 showed that rough sleeping had increased year-on-year, although it decreased compared to 2017.
- The latest annual national statistics, published by the government in February 2025, estimated that there were 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 in England, a new record high and the fourth annual increase in a row.
- In Greater Manchester, the number of people seen sleeping rough on a single night was recorded as 268 in 2017, 149 in 2023, and 154 in autumn 2024, with the figure increasing to 197 in 2025, according to The Manchester Mill.
- Burnham's pledge echoes one made by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who committed to providing 8,000 homes "immediately" to house people with a history of rough sleeping in the event of the party winning power.