Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has defended Prime Minister Andy Burnham's record of tackling rough sleeping in Greater Manchester during his time as mayor. Her comments came after Mr Burnham vowed to end rough sleeping in one of his first major policy announcements since becoming Prime Minister.
The latest annual national statistics, published by the Government in February, estimated there were 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 in England. Mr Burnham is planning to revive the 'Everyone In' scheme, which took thousands of rough sleepers off the streets during the pandemic, and wants to host a major national summit on homelessness.
Progress and setbacks in Greater Manchester
As Greater Manchester mayor, Mr Burnham vowed to end rough sleeping in the region by 2020. Data shows he made major progress towards that goal initially. He set up a scheme in 2018 called 'A Bed Every Night' to get people off the streets by creating emergency accommodation and support, donating 15 per cent of his mayoral salary. It led to a huge drop in the number of rough sleepers in Greater Manchester, from 268 people in 2017 to 90 in 2021.
But despite progress, rough sleeping did not end in the region, and in recent years figures show the issue is getting worse, with 197 people recorded as sleeping rough in 2025, up from 154 in autumn 2024, which itself was up from 149 in 2023. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority said that was still below the peak of 268 in 2017.
Rayner on the need for relentless focus
Compared to rough sleeping in England, Greater Manchester is performing better. The number of people rough sleeping in England fell from 4,751 in 2017 to a low of 2,443 in 2021. The national figures have also been rising since then, but by more than in Greater Manchester, with the total in England now higher than in 2017 at 4,793.
Asked by Sky News about rough sleeping numbers in Greater Manchester dipping but then rising again, Ms Rayner said: "We've got to keep a relentless focus on it. I think that's the message from both what happened at the pandemic and also what happened in Greater Manchester."
She added: "The other lesson from Greater Manchester is it's really difficult to do in isolation. We saw the figures go down, but obviously then we drew in people from other areas into Greater Manchester who knew that there were an offer there… But that real focus has to be driven continually by the Government and by our partners, rather than it be a focus for a time-limited period or in just one location."
Confidence in finding accommodation by Christmas
Ms Rayner went on to say she was "very confident" that enough accommodation can be found to get everyone off the streets by Christmas. Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, she said: "I'm very confident that we can do that. And working with people like Shelter, working with the charities and the faith sector, working with local authorities, I believe we can do it.
"But it's not just about taking people off the streets, it's about that longer-term and medium-term goal of giving them the support they need to then get them a more secure housing situation, to get them employment, to get them support if they've got mental health or addiction issues. So it's a real drive to not just, you know, get people off the streets this winter and to solve it, but then for us to come back again next year. Because this investment is more about putting the foundations down to say it's not just about making your streets look clean and nobody's on them, it's about giving people the support they need to really say we care."
