Every rough sleeper in England will be offered accommodation this winter, the prime minister has said. Andy Burnham made ending rough sleeping his first pledge when entering Downing Street in July and now says he wants "to get everyone in for Christmas". Emergency accommodation will be provided to end the need for rough sleeping alongside practical support for any health needs, as part of a £442m package.
Shadow housing secretary James Cleverley said there was "little detail" about how the initiative would be paid for or delivered. Homeless charity Crisis said the announcement was "really significant". "It marks a turning point in our country that we're not going to tolerate people being forced to sleep on the streets," a spokesperson said.
The previous Conservative government had pledged to end rough sleeping by 2024. According to official data, there were an estimated 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in England in the autumn of 2025, external, a 96% increase in five years. However, the annual snapshot is seen as significantly undercounting the extent of the problem due to strict rules over how the data is collected.
Chloe, 27, from London, ended up rough sleeping last year after spending time in contact with care and foster services growing up. She slept in parks away from the centre of the city to try and to stay hidden, and says no rough sleeper would turn down a bed if it comes with the right support. "The possibility of ending homelessness is amazing. [But] things like hidden homelessness have been normalised, with people sofa surfing and living paycheck to paycheck, I think there are certain foundational things that need to be addressed first to make sure the scope of help is there." Chloe was helped by Crisis who housed her in temporary accommodation and now has a place to study at film school.
She still thinks that the scheme will be welcomed by the majority of rough sleepers. "In general, people on the street want a home. People usually end up coming back to homelessness for mental health or financial reasons.
So if that could also be addressed, there is no person sleeping on the street right now who wouldn't want some type of security." Meron has been sleeping in a tent in a tunnel in central London for about two months. He says he became homeless after his three-month contract at an Amazon Warehouse ended. "People leave their rubbish out.
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