Prime Minister Andy Burnham has conceded he 'may not succeed' in getting homeless people off the streets for Christmas. He said if he did not meet his target, it would be a 'collective failure of everybody, [and] myself'.
Mr Burnham said he wanted everyone sleeping rough to be given an offer of accommodation, but admitted he could not force people to accept it. He set himself the ambitious task earlier this week when he said he wanted to 'get everyone in for Christmas'.
National drive to end rough sleeping
The Prime Minister announced a national drive to end rough sleeping, backed by increased funding of £102 million, with a combined package of £442 million geared towards ending the crisis in England.
But when the Manchester Evening News asked if he was confident he could achieve his goal, Mr Burnham gave a candid answer.
“I will do my best to give everybody an offer,” he said. “And the real failure would be, if that didn't happen, if someone out there said, 'well, no one said I could come in'.
“And I may not succeed. Let me just put my hands up and say that. I'd rather try, because that's who I am. I want to bring those values to the way I go about this.”
Number 10 North and devolution
Mr Burnham made the remarks from inside No10 North on Friday, during a behind-the-scenes tour granted to the MEN of the Prime Minister's northern headquarters in Heron House in Albert Square, Manchester.
The government also announced on that day that 'high-performing' civil servants will be shipped into mayoral offices – including in Greater Manchester – declaring 'the days of Westminster hoarding power are over'.
The pledge was made as England's regional mayors from across the political spectrum joined the first 'virtual situation room' meeting that was convened by Number 10 North. Whitehall officials will be posted into mayors' offices on secondments lasting from six to nine months, in a new pilot scheme.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner and Exchequer Secretary Dan Tomlinson were among those who attended virtually. Present in the room were Chancellor John Healy, First Secretary of State Louise Haigh, and Caroline Simpson, who recently stepped down as group chief executive of Greater Manchester Combined Authority to take up a new role as Mr Burnham's deputy chief of staff.
“Together we're going to drive growth through Number 10 North and change the way the country is run,” said Mr Burnham. “This is a huge innovation that shouldn't be underestimated. Some people want to call it a gimmick. It's far from that.”
The Prime Minister said he was 'trying to reverse… 40 years of drift for lots of places around the country' and that the new northern headquarters was about 'putting the power back in every postcode and then giving local places the chance to turn themselves around'.
Tax rises and visitor levy
Mr Burnham did not explicitly rule out tax rises either, as he discussed the financial challenges of delivering his ambitious 10-year-plan for the country.
He said the decision to put up local taxes was for regional mayors. Under fiscal devolution, mayors and combined authorities would be able to impose certain surcharges, such as an overnight visitor levy, and this would be down to them, rather than a top-down measure imposed by Westminster.
He pointed to Manchester, which has a City Visitor Charge – a £1 per room, per night fee, that was introduced in April 2023 to pay for measures aimed at attracting more tourists. It is run by the Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District (BID), a body representing hotels and serviced apartments providers in the city.
The charge is a completely separate model to the Government's overnight visitor levy, a policy that was announced for England in November 2025. There was a consultation, with responses yet to be announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government so details of what the tourism tax would look like in England are yet to be confirmed.
The purpose of the levy is for local leaders to raise funds which can be invested in the local area, something Mr Burnham is keen to see more of. He pointed to his time as mayor, when he raised the mayoral precept to help finance the rollout and operation of the Bee Network.
“I did at times have to go to people to ask for a contribution to build the Bee network,” he said. “But I hope people can see now that it has improved life in the city region and has lifted our economy because people can access jobs and training more easily than they could before… And people made a contribution.”
He added: “I just want people to understand why that is the right thing to do. It means the continued development of the city, the cost of that, will be shared between visitors and residents rather than residents only picking up [for] all of the town.”
Housing and homelessness pledge
Mayors will also be key to delivering the Prime Minister's housing ambitions, with devolved powers being used to increase the supply of affordable homes. But the issue that remains more personal for the Prime Minister is homelessness.
In his interview with the MEN, he appeared to tone down the promise made on rough sleeping, from 'getting everyone in' to ensuring everyone has an 'offer'.
“What I am working to ensure by Christmas is that everybody's given an offer of accommodation. I can't force somebody to walk into that accommodation,” he said.
Asked if he was rolling back on his initial promise, Mr Burnham said: “No, no, no… that is the policy, and as long as I'm Prime Minister, that will be the policy, an 'everyone in policy', and it's not a temporary policy. It's a permanent policy.
“I want to be clear that you cannot force somebody to leave where they are and come in. But the ambition is clear. What I can guarantee is everyone in that position is given an offer, and that's what I'm asking everyone in this team to do by Christmas.”
This week, the government said Greater Manchester would be handed just shy of £17m as part of a £37m package for the North West.
While mayor of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham vowed to end rough sleeping in the region by 2020. He launched A Bed Every Night (ABEN) in 2018, creating emergency accommodation and support for people sleeping rough and donating 15 per cent of his mayoral salary to the scheme. More than 14,000 people have gone through the scheme since it started.
While the number of people recorded as sleeping rough in Greater Manchester fell from 268 in 2017 to 90 in 2021, it rose again to 197 in 2025. But Mr Burnham said there were two reasons why homelessness rose again after the pandemic.
“Number one, some poor decisions were made at a national level that led to more people on the streets in relation to local housing allowance, in relation to Home Office policy. So things beyond our control led to the numbers, numbers increasing,” he said. “But there was a second reason as well, which is because we were running A Bed Every Night and Great Manchester was known to offer more support. People were travelling to Greater Manchester to access that support. And I became a bit frustrated if I'm honest. I knew I couldn't achieve the mission without everywhere doing the same thing.”
The Prime Minister said the national effort will require not just funding but also support from faith organisations and charities to 'get behind it as well'. He added: “It's a permanent thing. It's not just, we have a drive for Christmas and then it goes away.”
Asked if he would see it as a failure if there are still homeless people on the streets and if he would apologise, he said: “I would regard it as a failure, as a collective failure of everybody, myself, society, everybody, because we've not been able to create the conditions for somebody to come in.”
Mr Burnham said he had learnt a lot from his time as mayor and wanted to thank MEN readers personally for holding him to account.
“I'm grateful to the MEN for the way you challenged me over the years and you pointed out where I got things wrong and, you know, helped me learn.
“I went on a learning journey in almost 10 years as mayor of GM, and I'm bringing all of that learning to the service of the country, and hopefully we can make some changes as a result.”
