Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised that every rough sleeper in England will be offered a way off the street by Christmas, as the Budget is set to double funding for tackling the issue. Chancellor John Healey will confirm a further £432 million to address rough sleeping in Wednesday's statement, bringing the total investment to £874 million.
Summit to bring together businesses and charities
The Prime Minister will host a rough sleeping summit at Downing Street on Monday, bringing together private firms, charities and local leaders to consider ways of tackling the issue. Mr Burnham said 'every part of society' needed to contribute to ending rough sleeping.
His announcement comes as the number of people sleeping rough across Greater Manchester reached one of its highest levels in six years. Government data shows there were 444 rough sleepers across the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester in June 2026, up from 402 in June 2025. Nationally, there were 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 in England, according to the most up-to-date statistics.
Funding to continue until end of Parliament
Mr Burnham said: "Rough sleeping isn't a fact of life. It's a thing governments either choose to accept or don't. Well, I don't accept it. That's why we're doubling funding so that people aren't just offered a safe route off the streets this winter but have that same support right through the rest of this Parliament too. But we can't do it alone. If we're going to end rough sleeping, we need every part of society behind us on this."
The funding at the Budget comes on top of £442 million committed earlier this year and will allow the rough sleeping programme to continue until the end of the current parliament in 2029. Of that allocation, it was announced that Greater Manchester would be given just shy of £17m as part of a £37m package for the North West. It is not clear yet just how much extra funding the region will get under the new pledge.
Private sector pledges support
Organisations attending the Monday summit include the National Housing Federation, which will work with housing associations to identify at least 2,000 potential homes and bedspaces, while beauty firm L'Oréal Group will launch a social salon partnership with St Mungo's and Haircuts4Homeless. Virgin Media O2 will provide digital support to organisations working with rough sleepers, while other attendees at the summit include the Salvation Army, Ikea, the Morrisons Foundation and Comic Relief.
Housing and communities secretary Angela Rayner said: "This is a big ambition – we know that. But we will not back down from making sure everyone has the offer of a route off the streets this Christmas. This summit is about bringing every part of society together behind that mission."
Record and criticism
Upon entering Downing Street for the first time in July, Mr Burnham pledged as his 'first instruction' on day one to 'finally end long-term, rough sleeping across the UK at the earliest opportunity'. The prime minister has faced criticism from the Conservatives over his record. When he campaigned to become mayor in 2017, Burnham vowed to end rough sleeping in the region by 2020. The following year, he launched A Bed Every Night (ABEN), creating emergency accommodation and support for people sleeping rough and donating 15 per cent of his mayoral salary to the scheme.
While the number of people recorded as sleeping rough in Greater Manchester fell from 268 in 2017 to 90 in 2021, the problem has since worsened. Shadow housing secretary Katie Lam said: "Burnham is throwing another £432 million at a problem he failed to solve in Greater Manchester. Under Labour, rough sleeping has hit record highs – yet their answer is always more taxpayers' money and more empty promises. Healey must use his Budget this week to cut taxes for working people, get the ballooning benefits bill under control, and stop pushing up energy prices. Instead of piling more costs onto hard-working people, Healey must focus on easing the cost of living and delivering real value for taxpayers' money."
Mayor of Greater Manchester Bev Craig said: "In a rich country like ours, we shouldn't accept rough sleeping and homelessness as normal. It's not, and with political will nationally and locally we can change that. As Mayor I'm determined to help people off the streets, making homelessness rare and avoidable in our city region by offering support and building the homes we need. This winter, across Greater Manchester, I want to make sure everyone has a safe and secure place to sleep, with the wrapround support to get people back on their feet. Our city region has done more than any other in the past decade to address this crisis – with our A Bed Every Night model now providing the blueprint for the rest of the UK. We've shown what can be achieved when we all work together to make life better. We're already providing immediate support to more people in every part of Greater Manchester when they need it most. With the Prime Minister making this a national priority, changing government policy to help and the additional funding to back it up, we're able to go even further. We're using additional money to do more - from helping people off the streets with A Bed Every Night, to building proper temporary accommodation and providing support for families. But I'm not satisfied with simply helping people off the streets. We need to do more to prevent them ever being in that situation in the first place. That's why I've made it my mission to deliver more council and genuinely affordable homes in our city region – 50,000 by 2039. It's a simple truth that you can't thrive without the security and stability that comes with having a good home, and that's what we're building here in Greater Manchester."
