Charity boss: Relearning lessons that don't last on tackling homelessness

OUTGOING FRAMEWORK HEAD LOOKS BACK ON THREE-DECADE FIGHT

- By JOE LOCKER Local democracy reporter

“EVENTUALLY we will learn again - but it is frustrating the lessons do not last.” Andrew Redfern, outgoing chief executive of Nottingham homelessness support charity Framework, has this to say when asked to sum up the history of the city’s rise in the number of people sleeping rough.

Reflecting on almost 30 years in his post before his retirement in December, Mr Redfern said he once witnessed homelessness in Nottinghamshire - and the wider region - almost solved through preventative work.

“Things do go in cycles and there was a period between about 2000 and 2010 when services were improving, when the system was becoming more together and rational,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Redfern put this down to the £1.8bn Supporting People programme, launched by Tony Blair’s Labour Government in 2003, which helped keep vulnerable people in their own homes, out of worsening crises, and ultimately away from costlier public services.

But in 2010, under the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, the funding began to be slashed.

Around the same time the ring-fence for the funding was removed, allowing councils to spend the money in other areas they believed to be under greater pressure.

“In 2010 austerity hit and at first it was a massive shock,” Mr Redfern added.

“There were some huge initial cuts, particularly to prevention work. And since Covid it has progressively gone downhill.”