Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Special offer: Receive 8 issues for just £9.99!
SUBSCRIBE
Politics

Shaun Bailey backs Housing First and sets out plans to tackle homelessness

Bailey said London needed a "homes first" policy and said he advocated the Housing First model pioneered in Finland

Shaun Bailey

The Conservative party's candidate for London Mayor Shaun Bailey, visits FM Conway - Erith Asphalt Plant & Erith Wharf. Image credit: Gustavo Valiente / Parsons Media

Shaun Bailey, the controversial Conservative candidate for London mayor, has said he backs Housing First and, if elected, would lobby the Government to get as many rough sleepers off the streets as possible. 

Bailey, who is up for election against Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan in May, highlighted his own experiences of homelessness and revealed he had once spent the evening on a night bus during a period of sofa surfing. 

Lockdowns have taken income away from hundreds of Big Issue sellers. Support The Big Issue and our vendors by signing up for a subscription.

“I would have to say it’s the most afraid I’ve ever been. And let’s be fair, I’ve had people run at me with baseball bats, I’ve had umpteen different knives and stuff pulled on me – nothing compared to the terror of not having somewhere to stay,” he told The Big Issue in a new interview

Bailey said London needed a “homes first” policy and said he advocated the Housing First model pioneered in Finland, where people experiencing homelessness are given a home regardless of circumstance and provided with wraparound support. 

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

He said he was “seeking the platform” and would lobby the Government to build on the strengths of the Everyone In scheme and get as many people off the streets as possible.

He also accused Sadiq Khan of “playing politics” and added he would work constructively with the Government if elected.

“One of the failings of Sadiq Khan and where he needs a fresh start and fresh thinking is to go to the Government and say ‘here’s what London’s doing, can the Government please match this?’ and hopefully do more,” Bailey said. 

“When you just go and bang on the door and ask for money, they tell you ‘no, we’ve given you £18 billion, try and do something with that’.

“Sadiq Khan last year asked for £29 billion in additional funding, he knows that’s unrealistic but he’s just playing politics.” 

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Bailey has had a bumpy start to 2021. In January, he told Inside Housing that people experiencing homelessness should save to buy a property through Shared Ownership to fix their predicament. In a London Assembly committee meeting in March, he said some people would use Universal Basic Income to buy drugs.

Both comments drew widespread condemnation but Bailey said his words were “misrepresented”.

The Everyone In scheme supported 37,000 people off the streets in total during the first wave of the Covid crisis. In London, local leaders said the scheme had helped contribute to getting eight of ten rough sleepers inside for good. 

Bailey said he would build on this work but urged caution on the timetable.

He added: “The first step is to support charities and specialist work but the second step is to just provide enough homes in the first place.

“One of the weirdest things about my sofa-surfing, I would say that the entire time I had a job. 

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

“That shows you that we need to provide a decent lower tier of housing from a cost point of view.” 

Read The Big Issue’s full interview with Shaun Bailey here.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Never miss an issue

Take advantage of our special New Year subscription offer. Subscribe from just £9.99 and never miss an issue.

Recommended for you

View all
It's been a decade since UK inflation fell to 0%. Here's why that's 'actually quite a bad thing'
Images of George Osborne and Rachel Reeves holding the budget box. Images: Flickr/ HM Treasury
Inflation

It's been a decade since UK inflation fell to 0%. Here's why that's 'actually quite a bad thing'

Big Issue founder tables bill for new government ministry dedicated to eradicating poverty
Lord John Bird reads his Ministry for Poverty Prevention Bill in the House of Lords.
Poverty

Big Issue founder tables bill for new government ministry dedicated to eradicating poverty

Rachel Reeves sets Labour on collision course with environmentalists over 'bats and newts'
a bat
Nature

Rachel Reeves sets Labour on collision course with environmentalists over 'bats and newts'

'In an age of misinformation, facts suffer too': How the end of fact-checking puts democracy at risk
social media

'In an age of misinformation, facts suffer too': How the end of fact-checking puts democracy at risk

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