Andy Burnham's £874 million vow to end rough sleeping by Christmas has been branded "nonsense" after a Manchester councillor said the Prime Minister left her city still battling a homelessness crisis.
On Monday, Labour vowed to double the funding to tackle homelessness in England after the PM promised to give every rough sleeper a route off the streets by Christmas 2026. But he made a similar vow in 2017 when mayor of Greater Manchester.
Numbers rise despite earlier pledge
Even though the number of rough sleepers a night fell from 268 to 90, that figure has now doubled to 197. Meanwhile, 9,589 people are sofa-surfing or in emergency accommodation.
In July, Manchester rough sleepers told the Express there were not enough hostels, with Glaswegian Joseph McDowell, 63, bemoaning: "At night I sleep where I can. It's dangerous. People p*** on you."
Now Reform UK's Sian Astley, who came second with more than 111,000 votes in the race to replace Mr Burnham as mayor, says the idea of sorting the issue nationally in just the few weeks before Christmas is "ridiculous" and "nonsense".
Councillor's criticism
The Manchester city councillor, who represents Baguley, has visited the city's rough sleepers and hostels but says getting them off the streets is sadly incredibly "complex".
Ms Astley said: "I'm seeing with my own eyes the reality of the situation in Manchester and – excuse my French – the whole thing's an absolute s***show. It's a nonsense for Burnham to say that his policy on homelessness, whether that's rough sleepers or whether that's people in temporary accommodation, has been successful in Manchester."
"But I understand why he wants to spend £800million across England, because at the minute he's been trumpeting about Manchester and about how brilliant Manchester is. I just think the whole thing is ridiculous."
Complex problems and sanctuary city claims
Ms Astley also suggested that some people flock to Manchester, from abroad and within the UK, because they believe the hype of it being a "City of Sanctuary" that supposedly leads the way in tackling the issue.
She added: "People head to Manchester – you see that. People sitting on the desk at the town hall (see) people turning up with a suitcase, saying 'we believe we can have a bed for a night', or 'we believe anybody in Manchester gets housed'."
As a builder who previously starred on BBC One's DIY SOS and the BBC Two series Your Home Made Perfect before going into politics, Ms Astley said not enough new social housing is being built for the homeless.
Shadow Housing Secretary Katie Lam said rough sleeping had hit "record highs under Labour" and criticised Mr Burnham for failing to end rough sleeping when he was running the North-west of England region. Across England, recent official figures estimate there were 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025.
Bed every night scheme and responses
When Greater Manchester mayor in 2018, Mr Burnham set up "a bed every night" scheme to offer emergency accommodation to those on the streets. It now provides more than 600 bed spaces, assigning teams to help rough sleepers find permanent housing, addiction support and other types of care.
It led to a drop in the number of rough sleepers in Greater Manchester from 268 in 2017, to 90 in 2021. But the figure has risen each year since then.
Paul Dennett, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority's lead for Housing First, blamed "austerity, welfare cuts, and the chronic undersupply of social housing" as major factors.
Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe, of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, said while numbers had gone up, Greater Manchester still compares "really favourably to the national picture".
Asked about his previous attempts to end rough sleeping in Manchester, Mr Burnham accepted that people were coming to the city to seek a roof over their head. He said: "I bring the learning from that to this. The reason why the figures went back up is because we were the only place that was offering a bed every night, so people came to Greater Manchester knowing that we were providing a higher level of support ... I realised that it's only if everywhere does it at the same level that you can actually end rough sleeping."
Ex-pro basketballer Jerelle "Jefe" Okoro, 35, has been helping feed the homeless across Greater Manchester with his Jefe's Ramen pop-ups – where he encourages people to buy one ramen dish and donate another to feed rough sleepers. His most recent night sold more than 50 bowls of ramen – meaning 50 meals for the homeless – and lifted footfall at the pub where he did the pop-up by 40%.
Jefe, a former professional basketball player for Leicester Riders, told the Express: "I think Mr Burnham is doing his best trying to highlight the issues. A lot of people think this is a battle that he is using to champion his position and make him look more relatable. He has been trying to put the focus on how some of these numbers are."
"Unfortunately, it's a problem that we have to work together to fix. If the problem isn't acknowledged, then it doesn't exist. If it doesn't exist, it can't be attacked."
In July, homeless mother-of-three Michelle Benjamin, 34, told the Express she had been living on the streets of Manchester since December, having previously worked in sales and cafes. She said then that Mr Burnham needed to "open his eyes" to the reality of homelessness in his own city before thinking he could solve it for the rest of England.
