Burnham pledges to double rough sleeping cash to £874m as Tories say homelessness hit 'record highs under Labour'
Andy Burnham plans to double rough sleeping funding to £874m — about £190,000 per person among roughly 4,000 counted on the streets on a single night this year.
On a single autumn night in 2025, rough sleeper counts across England reached an estimated 4,793 — a fourth straight year of increases and a figure 171% above 2010 levels. Shadow housing secretary Katie Lam challenged Andy Burnham over his failure to tackle rough sleeping while he served as Greater Manchester mayor. Chancellor John Healey is expected to confirm a further £432m in Wednesday's Budget. Charities attending the six-hour summit pressed him on the housing benefit freeze.
Burnham told the summit 'names not numbers' will now be the national mantra.
Charity founder Steven Stuart warned that ending homelessness is 'not that simple'.
Around 1,000 prisoners a month leave custody with no home to go to.
