Rough sleepers increase despite Tory promises to end rough sleeping

The Tory Government had made a manifesto promise to end rough sleeping but the rough sleeping figures are tragically spiralling.

In London, the number of households left homeless has rocketed by 65.8 per cent in the past year. New figures exposed the reality of rough sleeping as the figure was up from 1,460 to 2,420 in the British capital alone.

London boroughs had some of the steepest rises in the country as numbers more than doubled. Haringey saw homelessness climb by more than 160 per cent to 168 and Tower Hamlets saw the number increase by 133 per cent to 156.

The cut to Universal Credit plunged even more people into poverty. Across the country, 11,580 single households were assessed as rough sleeping at the time of approach which was up 39.4% from 2019 until 2020.

According to Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, “with rough sleeping figures tragically spiralling one thing is clear: we are in dire need of action from this Government who made a manifesto promise to end rough sleeping.

“Yet, despite making this promise they are working against this goal. They have failed to scrap the Vagrancy Act which criminalises rough sleepers, and their heartless cut to the Universal Credit uplift will plunge even more people into poverty…”