Andy Burnham has announced a further £432m in funding to deliver homelessness support ahead of the Budget. 

The Prime Minister says this should offer a route off the street for every rough sleeper beyond this winter as he took the total spending behind his commitment to £874m. 

His pledge was made ahead of the first-ever Rough Sleeping Summit at Downing Street today (26 October), which brings together businesses, charities and local leaders to mobilise action across housing, jobs and practical support. 

Victoria Searle, Principal Associate in the government team specialising in housing at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “Like many of Andy Burnham’s policies since he became Prime Minister, there is proof of concept from his time as Greater Manchester Mayor via the ‘Bed Every Night’ scheme, which now provides more than 600 beds a night, and the ‘Everyone In’ scheme that temporarily housed about 37,000 people during the pandemic, with about a quarter going on to find settled accommodation. 

“However, local authorities will also need clarity from government on the legal powers they should be relying upon to house rough sleepers over the coming weeks. We know from our experience supporting councils to deliver ‘Everyone In’ that they lack the legal powers to provide accommodation to people who are ineligible under the current legislative regime. 

“The government may need to amend existing housing legislation to create a new general power to accommodate in complex cases, but it is unlikely this could be achieved in time to deliver the Prime Minister’s ambition before Christmas. 

“Alternatively, government may need to provide certain assurances and guarantees that it will make to local authorities in the event of a successful legal challenge.

“In addition, Westminster will need to address the structural funding challenges that are resulting in a greater number of households becoming homeless. There is a widening gap between the cost of renting in the private sector, and the local housing allowance (LHA) cap on the rents that the government will meet through benefits, driving more people into homelessness as their private housing becomes increasingly unaffordable. 

“With the funding available to local authorities to meet their homelessness duties through housing benefit subsidy still capped by reference to 2011 rents, there is an unsustainable demand on local authority housing funds, which in turn affects their ability to invest in their own social housing stock and temporary accommodation. 

“Given the Prime Minister has also set out an ambitious vision to oversee the biggest post-war council house building programme, his government also needs to urgently consider how it can target limited public subsidies to crowd in patient capital from institutional investors and pension funds. A new generation of public-private partnerships would help deliver a rapid expansion of council housing without leaning too heavily on the taxpayer.”