Andy Burnham makes ending rough sleeping his first policy pledge as prime minister
The government has said initial steps will include helping those in long-term stranded situations move into safe housing and will include “the acquisition of suitable homes”.
In a statement following her first speech in Downing Street, Burnham said: “On my first day as Prime Minister, I am announcing this government’s determination to end long-term sleep deprivation across the UK as soon as possible.
“We will get to work immediately, bringing together national and local government with the investment needed to make this happen.”
The latest annual national statistics published by the government in February this year estimate that 4,793 people in England were barely sleeping on a single night in autumn 2025.
This was a new record and the fourth consecutive annual increase.
The number of people found sleeping rough on a single night in Greater Manchester was recorded as 268 in 2017, 149 in 2023 and 154 in autumn 2024.
Manchester Mill reported, external It was stated that this figure will increase to 197 in 2025.
Hours before making her first Downing Street speech, Burnham visited homelessness charity The Passage in Victoria, London.
Asked about his record, Burnham said “the problem has decreased significantly” since he became Greater Manchester’s first mayor.
“We ran a scheme called ‘A Bed Every Night’ for 600 beds every night, and we funded it in various ways. But we were the only place to do that,” he told broadcasters.
“And if you’re one place and people are coming to Manchester from other cities you can’t get the numbers down.
“So he taught me that the only way to do this is together.”
Burnham referred to the Everybody In program during the Covid-19 pandemic, where thousands of rough sleepers across England were helped with accommodation.
He said: “Everybody’s going in the same direction, everybody’s coming in, like we did in the pandemic, because in the pandemic we got people in.
“That’s what I’m saying as I enter government today. We did it then, we can do it now, we can get the basics right, we put caring for people at the center of everything we do, and we can make this country work the way it should again.”
Burnham’s pledge echoes a pledge made by former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, who pledged to “immediately” provide 8,000 homes for rough sleepers if the party came to power.
