PM promises to mount ‘Covid-style campaign’ to get homeless people off streets in winter
Housing secretary Angela Rayner defended Andy Burnham’s record of tackling rough sleeping in Greater Manchester, arguing that it is “really difficult to do in isolation”.
Asked by Sky News about rough sleeping numbers in Greater Manchester dipping but then rising again, Rayner said:
We’ve got to keep a relentless focus on it. I think that’s the message from both what happened at the pandemic and also what happened in Greater Manchester.
The other lesson from Greater Manchester is it’s really difficult to do in isolation. We saw the figures go down, but obviously then we drew in people from other areas into Greater Manchester who knew that there were an offer there …
It’s not just about taking people off the streets, it’s about that longer-term and medium-term goal of giving them the support they need to then get them a more secure housing situation, to get them employment, to get them support if they’ve got mental health or addiction issues.
So it’s a real drive to not just, you know, get people off the streets this winter and to solve it, but then for us to come back again next year.
We see people bedded down in doorways and sat outside stations, carrying their lives in rucksacks and sleeping bags on their backs. And I think most people have the same reaction: this isn’t right.
It shouldn’t be happening here. But we’ve lived with it for so long that something that used to shock us now feels like part of the scenery.
We did it in the pandemic. We got people out of the cold because, as a country, we decided it had to be done. We can do it again.
That’s why the first thing I announced when I became prime minister was a commitment to end rough sleeping. Not to manage it, not to reduce it – but to end it. And today, we’re taking the first step in getting it done.
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