Advertisement
Become a member of the Big Issue community
JOIN
Housing

Robert Jenrick says ending rough sleeping 'isn’t high enough on the government's agenda’

The former housing secretary told a Conservative Party conference fringe event that failure to end homelessness is a “stain on the record” of the Tories.

Robert Jenrick rough sleeping

Robert Jenrick has questioned whether government departments are committed to ending rough sleeping. Image: Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street.

Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has warned there is not enough political will in the government to hit its target of ending rough sleeping by 2024.

Jenrick, who was sacked last month, told a Conservative Party Conference fringe event that getting other departments to “step up” will be a challenge his successor Michael Gove faces if he is to deliver on the Conservative manifesto promise.

“Some issues stay with you long after you have left a job. For me, this is true of homelessness – even though I have taken an involuntary sabbatical from government,” said Jenrick at the event hosted by Crisis and think tank Centre for Social Justice.

“Other government departments need to step up – and currently they aren’t. The question to ask is: Is this issue high enough on the agenda in other government departments? Frankly, it isn’t.”

The backbench Conservative MP also said the failure to prevent rising rough sleeping was a “stain on the record of us as Conservatives” according to Inside Housing.

Rough sleeping decreased during Jenrick’s tenure as housing secretary, according to official figures, after he took over the role in July 2019.

Advertisement
Advertisement

The count taken later that year found 4,266 slept rough across England – down nine per cent on 2018 – while there was a further reduction of 37 per cent as 2,688 people were counted as living on the streets. However, homelessness experts warn that the figures, taken from single-night counts and estimates, tend to underestimate the scale of the issue.


And while Jenrick’s tenure in cabinet saw declining figures, there were still almost 1,000 more people on the streets in 2020 than a decade earlier when the Conservatives came into power as part of the coalition government. 

The Everyone In scheme had a big impact on the recent decline. The programme saw more than 37,000 rough sleepers and vulnerable people protected in hotels and other emergency accommodation during the pandemic. Of those, an estimated 26,000 had moved into settled accommodation as of January.

Jenrick described the success of the scheme as “one of the few silver linings in the ‘dark cloud’ of Covid” at the event. He also added that rough sleeping and homelessness are “solvable issues that must be tackled”.

Solutions were among the discussions at the event with Jenrick joined by Cities of London and Westminster MP Nickie Aiken as well as Crisis chief executive Jon Sparkes and Centre for Social Justice’s Joe Shalam.

Aiken continued her campaign to end the Vagrancy Act – the Victorian era law that criminalises rough sleeping.

Meanwhile, Sparkes spoke of the need to prevent homelessness in the first place through Housing First, genuinely affordable homes and support for people like survivors of domestic abuse and prison leavers who are at a higher risk of homelessness.

The Big Issue is also working to prevent surging homelessness in the months ahead through the Stop Mass Homelessness campaign.

The Big Issue is calling on the government to pay off £360m of rent arrears racked up during the pandemic, provide additional support for those struggling to pay rent or mortgages as well as suspending no-fault evictions to keep people in their homes. The campaign is also urging action to provide jobs and training in sustainable industries to keep people in work.

You can show your support for the Stop Mass Homelessness campaign by signing our petition.

Advertisement

Become a Big Issue member

3.8 million people in the UK live in extreme poverty. Turn your anger into action - become a Big Issue member and give us the power to take poverty to zero.

Recommended for you

View all
Cost of building homes higher than house prices in one in five areas after 'years of inflation'
Stock image of British houses
Housing

Cost of building homes higher than house prices in one in five areas after 'years of inflation'

Homelessness facts and statistics: The numbers you need to know in 2024
Homelessness

Homelessness facts and statistics: The numbers you need to know in 2024

Homelessness soars in England due to sky-high rents and asylum backlog crackdown
A child and her mother who are experiencing homelessness
Homelessness

Homelessness soars in England due to sky-high rents and asylum backlog crackdown

Renters should be compensated if they're forced out of their home, campaigners say
Renters' rights

Renters should be compensated if they're forced out of their home, campaigners say

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

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

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