Prime Minister launches national drive to get everyone in for Christmas

One month after making his first instruction as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham today (Wednesday 19 August) has announced the next steps in his national drive to end rough sleeping by announcing immediate action to offer everyone who needs it a route off the streets by Christmas, backed by increased funding of £442 million. 

New accommodation and support will be rolled out across England this winter, learning from innovative approaches put into place during the pandemic. 

Alongside emergency accommodation to end the need for rough sleeping, the programme, fully funded within MHCLG budgets, will offer practical help with housing, health and other needs, helping people build a more stable future. 

In addition, the Prime Minister has announced he will host a first of its kind national summit in the Autumn 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 new commitment to offer everyone a route off the streets this Christmas, along with boosted funding and a landmark summit, reflect the Prime Minister’s approach of bringing everyone together in a national drive to step up and play their part in ending rough sleeping - with everyone pulling in the same direction at a local level to make real change backed by funding at a national level.

The plans will not only change the lives of those being given somewhere to sleep and a foundation to rebuild their lives but have huge benefits for the whole country, as research from Crisis suggests preventing 40,000 people from becoming homeless for a year could save taxpayers around £370 million. 

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said:

No-one should have to bed down in a doorway or outside a station. But we’ve seen it for so long that it feels like Westminster has started to accept it.

I won’t accept it. That’s why my first instruction as Prime Minister was to end rough sleeping. And it’s why today we’re getting started with a national drive to get everyone in for Christmas.

We did it in the pandemic. We can do it again. But it needs all of us. Government will put the money in. But I’m asking leaders in communities and sectors across society to play their part locally too.

Let’s get people out the cold. And let’s bring back hope.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said:

When the Prime Minister pledged to end rough sleeping, we said we’d move urgently from words to action. Today we’re delivering on that promise.

This funding will help thousands of people leave the streets behind, move into secure homes and get the support they need to rebuild their lives.

Working alongside councils, mayors and charities, we’re backing local areas to tackle rough sleeping at its roots, giving people the security, dignity and opportunity they deserve, and restoring hope to those who have been let down for far too long.

The government is also confirming project allocations for this programme, which includes the investment into long term accommodation announced in July. 

As well as off the street provision, the funding will help local areas deliver more than 1,000 settled homes over the next three years, alongside intensive wraparound support to help people rebuild their lives. Areas facing the greatest pressures will receive the largest share of support, with communities all across England getting support to address rough sleeping in their area. Working alongside councils, Mayors will play a leading role in driving local action to end rough sleeping and making the decisions that are right for their communities to deliver help where it is needed most. 

Alongside funding allocations, the Government is publishing guidance to help local areas mobilise quickly and deliver a consistent route off the street offer this winter. The guidance will make clear the need to ensure adequate and accessible provision for women experiencing rough sleeping, recognising that women are often underrepresented in official statistics and may be at greater risk of violence, abuse, and exploitation. Guidance encourages local areas to consider single sex accommodation with specialist, intensive and trauma informed support, for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. This will support the government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls in the next ten years.

Charities, faith groups and community organisations are at the heart of efforts to end homelessness. That is why, in addition to holding a first of its kind national summit bringing together leaders across society with a role to play, £8.4 million of the new funding is going specifically to the Ending Homelessness in Communities Fund. This takes total funding allocations announced today for 100 different projects to £47 million over three years, helping small and medium-sized organisations provide life-changing support to people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.

Together, these measures form the foundation of cross-government work to end rough sleeping at the earliest opportunity, combining immediate action this winter with lasting solutions to help people rebuild their lives for good.

Matt Downie, Chief Executive of Crisis, said:

Today’s announcement represents a clear statement that in the 21st century, we will not tolerate a situation where people are having to bed down on our streets. It puts us on the path to an historic milestone: the end of rough sleeping in England.

Being forced to sleep rough puts people at increased risk of serious illness, violence, and abuse. The average age of death for people experiencing homelessness is 45 for men and 43 for women. So getting people off the streets and onto the path to a settled, secure home will save lives. 

In the long-term, rough sleeping can only be solved with the provision of safe, affordable homes, so we really welcome the funding to provide more settled homes.

Where access to a home isn’t possible straight away, providing good quality accommodation with a clear plan to support people into settled housing is a vital first step. We stand ready to help the Prime Minister in delivering this vital intervention ahead of Christmas, starting with this Autumn’s summit that will bring together civil society, businesses and faith leaders to help deliver on the Government’s vision of a country without rough sleeping.

Dr Emma Haddad, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said:

Today’s announcement marks a pivotal moment for the thousands of people experiencing rough sleeping: an acknowledgement from the highest level of political leadership that rough sleeping should not exist, and a decisive step forward to end it once and for all. 

In 21st Century Britain, nobody should be forced to sleep on the streets. We have long been calling for urgent and decisive action to end rough sleeping, and we wholeheartedly welcome Andy Burnham’s commitment to offer a route off the streets for everyone sleeping rough by Christmas, with a longer term, sustainable, housing-led programme developed alongside. It is exactly the kind of intervention needed to save lives, and to begin turning the tide on record levels of rough sleeping. 

Every day, we see the devastating impact rough sleeping has on people’s health, safety and hope for the future. It deepens trauma, negatively impacts mental and physical health, and makes it even harder to access support. Housing is key, but housing alone will not be enough. A roof over somebody’s head provides immediate safety, but lasting recovery requires intensive, person-centred, joined-up support.  

That today’s announcement provides both a commitment to get people off the streets quickly, as well as the tailored support needed to help them stay off them for good, is exactly the right approach. We stand ready to work with the Government, this winter and beyond, to make that ambition a reality.

Lord Bird, the co-founder of the Big Issue and a crossbench peer, said:

COVID proved that when we decide rough sleeping is unacceptable, we can act and get people in off the streets. This Christmas commitment is a welcome return to that spirit.

But it’s important that people are not just brought in from the cold for a few weeks, only to be sent back out again. To that end, I’m encouraged to see the Prime Minister is allocating millions in tried-and-tested localised solutions that offer wraparound support for long-term rough sleepers. Countless projects and pilots demonstrated this approach works, only to be suffocated by the underinvestment and short-termist mindset of the previous government.

In all my years at the Big Issue, I’ve never met a rough sleeper whose only problem was homelessness. Rough sleeping is a destination after years of untreated issues, like mental health problems, abuse and substance addictions – none of which simply vanishes when you get a roof over someone’s head. Instead we must start treating the causes of homelessness and begin the process of getting people back into society.

Seyi Obakin, Chief Executive of youth homelessness charity Centrepoint, said:

It is brilliant to see the Prime Minister’s pledge to end rough sleeping backed by a serious commitment of funding. We know how to eradicate street homelessness, not just for winter but with long-term investment in the systems and solutions that will ensure people aren’t forced to return to the streets and newly homeless people are prevented from ending up on the streets. What has been missing for too long is the will to do it at the scale and consistency required. With sustained funding and a clear plan that includes frontline delivery practitioners, this commitment can turn that ambition into reality and ensure all young people have the solid foundations of a home from which to build a future.

Rick Henderson, CEO of Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness organisations, comments:

The Government’s commitment to a national drive to end rough sleeping, backed by clear action and additional funding is extremely welcome. We are pleased that the need for both emergency off the street provision and investment in practical support has been recognised, and that there is an understanding that this must move towards long term accommodation and support if we are to truly end rough sleeping for good.

It is extremely encouraging to see the critical role of the voluntary and community fully acknowledged. We are delighted to see that the Ending Homelessness in Community Fund will receive additional funding to support the vital work of smaller and medium sized organisations across England, as well as the commitment to collaborative conversation with the VCS in shaping this work. We look forward to working with the Government to move towards a homelessness system that’s rooted in prevention and support, and making ending rough sleeping a reality.

Liz Rutherfoord, Chief Executive, Single Homeless Project:

This announcement is a huge step forward in ending rough sleeping for everyone - including the thousands of women in England who’s rough sleeping has previously been overlooked by successive governments. Women’s rough sleeping is hidden, transient and intermittent, and almost always interlinked with violence and abuse. The Prime Minister’s new funding announcement and guidance to local authorities is unprecedented, as it finally puts a spotlight on women’s rough sleeping, and urges local authorities to ensure that their efforts to get everyone in don’t leave women behind. Linking the commitment to end rough sleeping to the pledge to halve VAWG is essential - one is not possible without the other.

Nahar Choudhury, chief executive of Solace, said: 

This is a positive step towards fulfilling government commitments to end rough sleeping and halve violence against women and girls.  

We welcome the government’s recognition that women’s experiences of rough sleeping are fundamentally different from men’s and that women are under-represented in official statistics. This guidance highlights the need for local authorities to respond in a way that reflects women’s reality.  

Violence against women and girls is a cause and consequence of having nowhere safe to stay. Encouraging the use of women-only accommodation, alongside trauma-informed support, ensures survivors of violence and abuse are not subjected to further harm.

Notes to editors: 

• In July, the PM announced £340m of funding for new support to bring forward settled accommodation for people sleeping rough long-term.

• Today’s announcement builds on this by confirming an additional £102m, which will be used to fund a range of support to provide immediate routes off the street this winter and beyond, including uplifting the Ending Homelessness in Communities Fund.  

• This exceptional £442m package is fully funded, from uncommitted MHCLG budgets.