The prime minister has pledged to offer every rough sleeper in England a route off the streets by Christmas. It builds on the promise to end rough sleeping he made on his first day in office.
I know first-hand why a stable home matters. My family was made homeless twice when I was growing up – once in Uxbridge, where I was born and now represent, and then in Northamptonshire. The first time, we moved in with my grandparents. The second, we ended up in a hostel, before spending six months in temporary accommodation, until we were finally allocated a council house. I went on to become the first in my family to go to university, and I know that started with somewhere stable to live.
The issues facing the prime minister are stark and the impact economy – private capital, enterprise and philanthropy directed at solving social problems – is a key lever ready to help the Burnham government deliver on its promises. Recent government figures show 135,580 households in England living in temporary accommodation, 86,460 of them with children. These aren’t just numbers, they are children moving school mid-year, families waiting months in a single room. Councils in England now spend nearly £3 billion a year on temporary accommodation, and the bill is still rising.
To support his homelessness pledge, the prime minister pointed to Everyone In, the scheme that got thousands of rough sleepers off the streets during the pandemic, as proof that this problem can be solved when government chooses to act. The harder task is providing a permanent, settled home to prevent them returning to the streets. This is where social investment’s role is clear.
Alongside the emergency effort during Covid, the government backed social investment to secure settled homes for people to move on to. It matched a £25 million grant from leading social impact investor Better Society Capital, which attracted a further £138m from other investors, including local government pension schemes. That helped public money go further and supported the purchase of hundreds of properties across England. An independent evaluation by Manchester Metropolitan University found that the pilot was cost-neutral or cost-saving to the public purse, while increasing the supply of homes for people at risk of homelessness.
I have seen the power of the impact economy up close in my own constituency. During my campaign to become MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, I visited the Uxbridge United Welfare Trust, an almshouse charity that rebuilt its site using a loan from Charity Bank after being rejected by traditional lenders. The project provided older residents with new, social homes, while ensuring that profits were reinvested in the local community. The same model could help unlock social and affordable housing and strengthen communities across the country.
