Burnham piles pressure on PM to tackle homelessness

Rough sleeping has almost doubled since Covid, a damning report has found, with Andy Burnham calling on Sir Keir Starmer to make tackling homelessness a “moral mission”.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

The Greater Manchester mayor piled pressure on the prime minister to follow the success of the region in offering housing to the homeless. “If you set people up to succeed - they largely do,” Mr Burnham said. He added: “Tackling homelessness is not just an economic imperative, but also a moral mission.”

Mr Burnham’s calls came as a report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) warned of an “explosion in homelessness” following the pandemic. It found a 94 per cent increase in rough sleeping since Covid, with around 47,000 people sleeping on the streets in England in the last year.

The CSJ warned rough sleeping is “just the tip of the iceberg”, with councils across the country spending billions on temporary accommodation and being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy.

Labour’s manifesto promised to “put Britain back on track to ending homelessness” after saying progress tackling the crisis was undone under the Conservatives.