Burnham pledges to get thousands of rough sleepers off streets for Christmas – UK politics live | Politics

I’ve always thought you can tell something about a country by what it learns to walk past. And, somewhere along the way, we’ve got used to seeing people sleeping rough on our streets.

We see people bedded down in doorways and sat outside stations, carrying their lives in rucksacks and with sleeping bags on their backs. And I think most people have the same reaction: this isn’t right; it shouldn’t be happening here. But we’ve lived with it for so long that something that used to shock us now feels like part of the scenery.

That’s not on the public. It’s on us as politicians. For decades, Westminster has treated rough sleeping like a problem to step around rather than solve. It’s a philosophy that took hold in the 1980s and came back full force in the era of austerity: this idea that rough sleeping is just a fact of life rather than something government has a responsibility to end.

I’ve never accepted that. Britain is the fifth largest economy in the world. We’ve built the NHS, developed life-saving vaccines and invented the world wide web. But it’s somehow beyond us to get our own people off the streets? I don’t believe it for a minute. We did it during the pandemic. We got people out of the cold because, as a country, we decided it had to be done. We can do it again.

That’s why the first thing I announced when I became prime minister was a commitment to end rough sleeping. Not to manage it, not to reduce it – but to end it. And today, we’re taking the first step in getting it done.

Rayner also insisted that it is not a demotion for the chancellor that No 10 North will be taking charge of driving economic growth.

Asked by Sky News whether it was a demotion for John Healey, Rayner said:

Not at all, no. The chancellor is working really hard with the prime minister, with myself and other cabinet colleagues.

You’ll have seen the statement that the cabinet made I think now two weeks ago, where we were really clear on our intent to put devolution and community empowerment at the heart of this government.

So we saw in Greater Manchester, where Andy had more powers, we saw the economy growing faster than the rest of the UK, and the prime minister said he wants to see that growth in every postcode.

She added:

So working with No 10 North around how we devolve and work with businesses, with local partners to drive that economic investment in local areas, because they know what their economy is like, they know what the challenges are that they face, but they feel powerless at times when the power is so centrally controlled in Whitehall.

And what we’re all saying, including the chancellor, is that we’re going to work with partners to ensure that they feel empowered in this process, so they can drive their local economies.

Housing secretary Angela Rayner defended Andy Burnham’s record of tackling rough sleeping in Greater Manchester, arguing that it is “really difficult to do in isolation”.

Asked by Sky News about rough sleeping numbers in Greater Manchester dipping but then rising again, 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.

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.

Rayner said she is “very confident” that enough accommodation can be found to get everyone off the streets by Christmas.

Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, she added:

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.

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Andy Burnham has pledged to work to “get everyone in for Christmas” as he continues to build on his policy to end rough sleeping.

Arguing in the Guardian that rough sleeping has become so common it now “feels like part of the scenery”, Burnham promised he would mount a Covid-style campaign to get everyone off the streets this winter.

The announcement solidifies tackling homelessness as a central policy for Burnham’s government, and gives voters a measure by which to judge his success – although without a concrete target for ministers to hit.

Homelessness campaigners welcomed the move, but warned more will need to be done to tackle the longer-term temporary accommodation crisis, which has given the UK the worst homelessness problem in the western world.

In his article for the Guardian, he writes:

We see people bedded down in doorways and sat outside stations, carrying their lives in rucksacks and sleeping bags on their backs. And I think most people have the same reaction: this isn’t right.

It shouldn’t be happening here. But we’ve lived with it for so long that something that used to shock us now feels like part of the scenery.

He added:

We did it in the pandemic. We got people out of the cold because, as a country, we decided it had to be done. We can do it again.

That’s why the first thing I announced when I became prime minister was a commitment to end rough sleeping. Not to manage it, not to reduce it – but to end it. And today, we’re taking the first step in getting it done.

We’re putting £442m behind a national drive to get everyone in for Christmas.

The prime minister is expected to visit to a homelessness charity in the north-east later today.

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In other developments:

• Burnham confirmed a new partnership between the government and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to take local control of bus services in the region. Burnham said the “absolutely massive” move would protect thousands of jobs, which were threatened after the parent company behind local operator National Express indicated it was leaving the market.

• Burnham said “nothing of consequence” was exchanged when he was text messaging somebody impersonating Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles. “All politicians are receiving these pressures and these challenges, but I did everything right. There was a minimal exchange of information of zero consequence, and it was quickly reported,” he told reporters.

• Burnham said he will present findings on a review of the early release scheme in England and Wales when parliament returns in two weeks’ time. Justice secretary Alex Norris is drawing up plans to “maximise public safety and minimise the early release of prisoners”, the prime minister said.

• The green energy entrepreneur and Labour donor Dale Vince has urged the prime minister to allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, in a reversal of his previous position. Vince, who has given more than £5m to Labour over several years, said he had told Andy Burnham that the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects should be approved as long as the oil and gas produced were subject to price controls to make them cheaper than energy imported from overseas.