‘If people are sleeping rough, to me it says we don't have the care for people that we should have’

Andy Burnham said that ending rough sleeping in England is a “moral mission” that the country “should get on and do” as he unveiled his plans to address street homelessness.

The prime minister announced that every person sleeping rough in England would be offered a route off the street by Christmas on Tuesday (19 August).

The announcement follows Burnham’s reveal that his first instruction as prime minister would be to put England on a path to ending rough sleeping for good.

Speaking to exclusively to Big Issue as he visited homelessness charity Changing Lives in Newcastle on Wednesday, Burnham said: “To me it says something about who we are, what kind of country we want to be. If people are sleeping rough on the streets, to me it says we don’t have that care for people that we should have.

“Everyone should get support. And, in this day and age, where life is more unpredictable, who’s to say that we couldn’t be there ourselves with a few bits of bad luck. Nobody can say that anymore. It could be anybody and, therefore, support should be there for everybody.”

The prime minister’s announcement sees him take learnings from his time at mayor of Greater Manchester, when he pledged to end rough sleeping in the city region.

While his A Bed Every Night scheme failed to eliminate rough sleeping for good, the model sees anybody sleeping rough in Greater Manchester offered a place to stay alongside support. In total, the scheme claims to fund around 600 beds per night and Burnham’s intervention did see reduced numbers on the streets in its early days.

Read more:

• Andy Burnham: ‘Housing is a human right’
• Andy Burnham wants to prevent homelessness. But can he do it in ‘landlord-class Britain’?
• Andy Burnham’s approach to housing could put him on a collision course with Donald Trump

Burnham’s nationwide drive to get rough sleepers off the streets for Christmas builds on the A Bed Every Night model.

Emergency accommodation will be made available alongside help with housing, health and other needs to help people out of homelessness, backed with increased funding of £442 million.

Speaking to Big Issue following the announcement, the prime minister said that there is both a financial and moral case for taking urgent action to address rough sleeping.

“The thing is: what I learned as mayor of Greater Manchester is it can actually cost more to leave people sleeping rough than it costs to give them simple support. Long stays in hospital, damage to people’s mental health, that, in the end, can cost more,” added Burnham.

“It’s not the money reason to do it, but it backs up the reason why this is the right thing to do. There’s a moral case here, a moral mission that we should have around ending rough sleeping, but it makes sense on every single possible level and we should get on and do it.”

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