Burnham to Double Spending on Ending Rough Sleeping, Taking Total Funding to Nearly £900m

British prime minister Andy Burnham is to double spending on ending rough sleeping, with a further £432m to be allocated in this week's budget, bringing total funding for finding a lasting solution to nearly £900m by the end of the current parliament.

Burnham has pledged to offer every rough sleeper in England a safe route off the streets or wider support, as a central part of his premiership.

The announcement came as he prepared for a Downing Street summit on ending rough sleeping on Monday, which will bring together charities and businesses.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Burnham said rough sleeping is not a fact of life but something governments either choose to accept or do not. He said he does not accept it, and that funding is being doubled so that people are not just offered a safe route off the streets this winter but have the same support through the rest of this parliament too.

Burnham added that the government cannot do it alone, and that businesses, charities and local leaders are being brought together in Downing Street to make sure the solution lasts, because ending rough sleeping needs every part of society behind it.

The additional £432m comes on top of an initial £442m from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government budgets that will be allocated to the problem before March 2027.

Burnham's mission to end rough sleeping is already under way, with just two months to go before his Christmas deadline. Specialist outreach teams and new accommodation spaces are operating in Coventry, and further provision is being rolled out in places including Plymouth and Camden over the coming weeks.

As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham introduced schemes such as A Bed Every Night to offer emergency accommodation. The number of rough sleepers fell at first, but then began to increase again; Burnham has said this was because Greater Manchester was the only place providing that level of support, and people travelled there to access it.

He has said ending rough sleeping across the country will only be possible if all areas are pulling in the same direction, and that this funding is designed to achieve that.

Alongside the government, other organisations are making pledges at Monday's summit. The National Housing Federation is working with housing associations to identify at least 2,000 potential homes and bed spaces, including empty properties that could be brought back into use.

Virgin Media O2 will provide practical digital support to frontline organisations, while the charities St Mungo's and Haircuts4Homeless will work with L'Oréal on hair salons and wellbeing provision for those who have been sleeping rough.

Housing secretary Angela Rayner said it was a big ambition and the government would not back down from making sure everyone has the offer of a route off the streets this Christmas. She said the first step is giving people a roof over their head and freedom from the nightly struggle to find somewhere safe to sleep, but that Christmas is only the beginning, and work would continue to tackle the root causes of homelessness and end rough sleeping for good.

The homelessness charity Shelter welcomed the announcement. Its acting chief executive, Mairi MacRae, said the funding showed the government understands that a safe home is not a privilege but a necessity.

However, the Conservatives dismissed the move. Shadow housing secretary Katie Lam accused Burnham of throwing another £432m at a problem he failed to solve in Greater Manchester, saying that under Labour rough sleeping has hit record highs while their answer is always more taxpayers' money and more empty promises.

Lam said Chancellor John Healey must use this week's budget to cut taxes for working people, get the ballooning benefits bill under control, stop pushing up energy prices, and focus instead on easing the cost of living and delivering real value for taxpayers' money.