- Deputy Prime Minister announces an immediate £2.7million emergency support package for London’s rough sleepers.
- Today ministers across government meet to discuss plans to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping for good.
- Follows £233million announced at budget to tackle homelessness and a recent visit by Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, and Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to one of St Mungo’s homelessness services.
An emergency £2.7million fund for London has been launched by the Deputy Prime Minister as part of a £10million package for rough sleepers across the country this winter.
The funding boost can help to save lives this winter, ensuring rough sleepers have access to a safe and warm bed.
This comes as rough sleeping in the capital hit another record high this summer, with 4,780 people sleeping rough. Last year a devastating 155 people died rough sleeping on our streets.
Last week in the Budget, it was announced an additional £233m will go to tackling all forms of homelessness, taking total spending on reducing homelessness to nearly £1bn in 2025-26. This money will directly fund critical services to prevent homelessness and support people into secure, stable housing.
St Mungo’s is on the frontline of this homelessness emergency. The charity operates in parts of the UK facing the highest levels of homelessness. London is a hub for the UK and abroad and it sees some of the highest levels of people rough sleeping because of this.
Earlier in the week, Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, visited one of St Mungo’s services in London to discuss the need for support – particularly as winter creeps in, which brings increased threat to people rough sleeping.
St Mungo’s CEO Emma Haddad commented:“Our outreach teams respond to homelessness all year round, but in the winter they are literally saving lives. For the thousands of people sleeping rough across the UK, sub-zero temperatures heighten the risk of hypothermia, compounding the dangers people already face when they don’t have somewhere to live.
“As such, we welcome today’s announcement of £10 million to ease winter pressures. This funding is vital to support services like ours to provide extra beds to bring people in from the cold. Once in the warm, we can then support to find routes out of homelessness for good.
“However, beyond the winter a much broader and more sustainable solution is needed to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. Longer-term funding and partnerships will be key.”
Today the Deputy Prime Minister is chairing the first cross-government group on tackling homelessness. During the meeting the Deputy Prime Minister will pledge to end “sticking plaster” measures, and instead tackling the root cause of the problem.
The taskforce is a first step in the plan to develop a long-term strategy to tackle all forms of homelessness, bringing together healthcare, the justice system and education.
Emma continued: “The Deputy Prime Minister’s Interministerial Group on Tackling Rough Sleeping and Homelessness is a really important step in bringing the people with the levers round the table, because we know that homelessness touches on so many areas – health, housing and employment to name but a few. A coordinated effort is the only way to end this humanitarian and moral emergency and rebuild lives.”
