Labour needs to rethink its strategy to end homelessness

Winter is here and Christmas upon us.

- DUNCAN SHRUBSOLE

Thoughts at this time often turn to what it must be like to be homeless. My own first engagement with homelessness was volunteering at a shelter over Christmas, and the homelessness charity I now run is very grateful to all those motivated to give over the festive period.

Yet far too many people are facing Christmas without a safe and secure place to call home. Across England, rough sleeping is two-and-a-half times higher than in 2010, and a record 13,000 people were seen on the streets of London last year.

Out of sight, some 360,000 households approached their local authority for help with homelessness last year; record numbers are in temporary accommodation (130,000 households, including over 170,000 children); and thousands more people are in hostels or getting by on friends' floors. Those working on the homelessness frontline told me earlier this year that 85 per cent of them were seeing demand for their services rise and that 80 per cent expected it to get worse.

Each statistic is a real-life setback. Homelessness also has an economic cost, with local authorities across the country reliant on ever more expensive temporary accommodation, and then having to cut the services that could prevent homelessness to pay those bills - a clear false economy.