Burnham launches ‘national drive’ to get rough sleepers off streets by Christmas

Prime minister urges local leaders to act as homelessness campaigners welcome move but say more needs to be done I won’t abandon anyone to sleep rough on our streets. That’s my £442m promise Andy Burnham has urged local leaders to offer all rough sleepers in England a route off the streets by Christmas, as he pledges another £100m to end street homelessness. Arguing in the Guardian that rough sleeping has become so common it now “feels like part of the scenery”, Burnham promised he would mount a Covid-style campaign to get everyone off the streets this winter. The announcement solidifies tackling homelessness as a central policy for Burnham’s government, and gives voters a measure by which to judge his success – although without a concrete target for ministers to hit. Homelessness campaigners welcomed the move, but warned more will need to be done to tackle the longer-term temporary accommodation crisis, which has given the UK the worst homelessness problem in the western world. In his article for the Guardian, the prime minister writes: “We see people bedded down in doorways and sat outside stations, carrying their lives in rucksacks and sleeping bags on their back