Burnham pledges to end rough sleeping in England in first speech as prime minister

Andy Burnham’s announcement aims to replicate the schemes he rolled out during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester. Photograph: Fred Duval/Sopa Images/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham’s announcement aims to replicate the schemes he rolled out during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester. Photograph: Fred Duval/Sopa Images/Shutterstock Burnham pledges to end rough sleeping in England in first speech as prime minister Additional £340m over three years allocated to get people off the streets ‘at the earliest opportunity’ UK politics live – latest updates Andy Burnham has promised to end rough sleeping in England in his first pledge as prime minister, allocating an additional £340m over three years as he seeks to replicate the homelessness schemes he rolled out in Greater Manchester . Speaking in front of Downing Street immediately after becoming prime minister, Burnham said he would try to get people off the streets “at the earliest opportunity”. The announcement was welcomed by homelessness campaigners, who say the pledge can be met with enough money and political will. The prime minister’s critics, however, greeted the promise with scepticism, pointing out that despite having set out a similar goal as Greater Manchester mayor, Burnham had overseen four years of rising street homelessness . Burnham said on Monday: “On my first day as prime minister, I’m announcing this government’s commitment to finally end long-term rough sleeping across the UK at the earliest opportunity. “We’ll get to work immediately, bringing together national and local government with the investment needed to get it done.” Six highlights from Andy Burnham’s first Downing Street speech Read more Officials said the government would now put an extra £340m into its homelessness strategy – equivalent to £113m a year – which would come from unused parts of the housing department’s budget. They said the money would pay for 1,200 new homes and help support 3,000 people over five years. The money comes on top of £3.5bn, the previous government’s allocation for its homelessness strategy , which ministers said at the time was designed to halve the rates of long-term rough sleeping. Steve Reed, the housing secretary who oversaw that strategy, was sacked from his post on Monday as Burnham began the process of putting his cabinet together. Burnham’s promise, which the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had planned to announce if elected prime minister, aims to emulate the success of the “Everyone In” policy which the government briefly enacted during the Covid pandemic. It also echoes a pledge he made when he was running for the Greater Manchester mayoralty in 2017, when he promised to eliminate rough sleeping in Manchester within three years if elected. After he won that election, he had some early success with his homelessness policy, both with his rough sleeping programme, known as A Bed Every Night, and his broader scheme to tackle long-term homelessness, called