Housing

Read Keir Starmer's letter to Downing Street about the rough sleeping crisis

The Labour leader has called rough sleeping the "tip of an iceberg – the sharp end of a broken housing system and a society with gaping holes in its safety net".

Keir Starmer stands at the dispatch box in the House of Commons

Image credit: UK Parliament/Flickr

Labour leader Keir Starmer has urged the Prime Minister to tackle the “crisis” of rough sleeping and the root causes of homelessness.

In an open letter to Number 10, Starmer called for the Government to ensure “access to safe, Covid-secure accommodation for those that need it” and address issues of ”unaffordable housing, low pay, and insecure work” which can push families into destitution.

Support Big Issue vendors this Christmas by gifting a subscription

“Rough sleeping is a crisis which you pledged to end for good,” Starmer wrote in the letter, printed in full below. “But it is just the tip of an iceberg – the sharp end of a broken housing system and a society with gaping holes in its safety net.

“Many more people, many of them families with children, will experience homelessness, poverty and destitution this winter.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the Government “has taken unprecedented action to support the most vulnerable people in our society during the pandemic – backed by over £700 million to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping this year alone, including £23 million in extra support announced today to help rough sleepers recover from drug and alcohol misuse.”

In February, Boris Johnson announced a task force and £236m fund to help end rough sleeping, saying: “It is simply unacceptable that we still have so many people sleeping on the streets, and I am absolutely determined to end rough sleeping once and for all.”

The Everyone In scheme to protect rough sleepers at the height of the pandemic was widely seen as a success, but Dame Louise Casey, appointed to lead the rough sleeping taskforce, stepped down from the role in August.

Rough sleeping has more than doubled since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, according to official government figures, with 4,266 people estimated to be sleeping on the streets at the latest estimate in autumn 2019.

The next official estimates are expected in 2021, and homelessness and anti-poverty charities have warned of an impending crisis as the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic pushes the UK into recession.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently reported 2.4 million people experienced destitution in 2019, before the pandemic started, including half a million children.

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University predicted those numbers could double as a result of the pandemic. Destitution is defined as being unable to afford two or more essentials such as shelter, food, heating or clothing.

Helen Barnard, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “It is appalling that so many people are going through this distressing and degrading experience, and we should not tolerate it. No one in our society should be unable to afford to eat or keep clean and sheltered. We can and must do more. “

The letter from Mr Starmer follows a new push by the Labour party to support people who are sleeping on Britains streets .

Announcing the party’s winter homeless campaign, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary Thangham Debbonaire told The Big Issue “street homelessness is a moral failure”.

“This year we have really learned that the suffering of another person has a direct connection to everyone around them as well,” she said. “That means we have failed as a society and we have failed society.”

The MHCLG spokesperson said: “Our work is ongoing and by September we had supported over 29,000 vulnerable people, with two-thirds now moved into settled accommodation.

“We’re working with councils, charities and other partners to protect vulnerable rough sleepers this winter and launched the £15 million Protect Programme to ensure local areas facing the biggest challenges get the help they need to support rough sleepers.”

Read the Labour leader’s letter in full:

“Dear Prime Minister,

At this time of year, the sight of vulnerable people sleeping rough becomes more visceral than ever. It should shock and shame us all that in the UK in 2020, anyone should be spending Christmas alone and on the streets.

Before the Covid crisis, rough sleeping was a shameful sign of Government failure. We went into this pandemic with twice as many people sleeping rough than in 2010, affecting towns and cities across the country.

This winter, the situation facing rough sleepers is more desperate than ever. Temperatures dropped below 0C across parts of the country last week, but Covid restrictions have caused a drastic reduction in emergency night shelter accommodation. Thousands of rough sleepers risk missing out on life-saving shelter this winter unless the Government supports councils and charities to provide Covid-secure shelter.

Rough sleeping is a crisis which you pledged to end for good. But it is just the tip of an iceberg – the sharp end of a broken housing system and a society with gaping holes in its safety net. Many more people, many of them families with children, will experience homelessness, poverty and destitution this winter.

The community action we have seen during this pandemic, and the huge support for Marcus Rashford’s campaign on free school meals, has shown the empathy of the British public. However, we have to ask why so many people are in such need in the first place.

Even before the pandemic hit, poverty, hunger and homelessness were widespread. 2.4 million people and 500,000 children experienced destitution in 2019, an increase of more than 50% in only two years. This rise in poverty and destitution is no accident. It is a direct result of Government policy which has pushed so many more into hardship.

That’s why I am writing today to urge you to act on these injustices by ensuring access to safe, Covid-secure accommodation for those that need it. And to tackle the root causes of homelessness and destitution – such as unaffordable housing, low pay, and insecure work – so that next winter, fewer children will go to bed hungry at Christmas.

I implore you to act. Poverty fell under the last Labour government as a result of its determination and delivery. It can be done, if there is the political will to do it.

Yours sincerely,

Keir Starmer MP”

Support the Big Issue

For over 30 years, the Big Issue has been committed to ending poverty in the UK. In 2024, our work is needed more than ever. Find out how you can support the Big Issue today.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

View all
Housing crisis: Shared ownership an 'unbearable reality' which has 'failed to deliver', MPs warn
Housing

Housing crisis: Shared ownership an 'unbearable reality' which has 'failed to deliver', MPs warn

Most tenants have never heard of the beleaguered Renters Reform Bill
Renters and the Renters Reform Bill
Renting

Most tenants have never heard of the beleaguered Renters Reform Bill

ONS U-turns on plan to stop publishing data on deaths of homeless people after furious outcry
homeless deaths
homelessness

ONS U-turns on plan to stop publishing data on deaths of homeless people after furious outcry

UK housing is worst value for money of any advanced economy: 'We are a joke'
UK houses are the worst value for money
Housing

UK housing is worst value for money of any advanced economy: 'We are a joke'

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know