Rough sleeping is a national embarrassment – why is the government not doing more to find a solution?

Analysis: Theresa May has said some of the right things about this particular ‘burning injustice’, but as John Rentoul explains, her actions have fallen woefully short

Why has the government not prioritised help for rough sleepers? (Getty)

A year ago this week Jeremy Corbyn raised the subject of rough sleeping at Prime Minister’s Questions. Having passed the people in sleeping bags on my way into the House of Commons through the tunnel from the underground station, I was disappointed with Theresa May’s reply.

She responded with irrelevant statistics about homelessness – which is a related but different problem – that she said had “peaked” under the Labour government. Yes, they had, early in the Labour government, since when they had come down; and now, under a Conservative government, they are rising again. Today The Independent reports that child homelessness is at a 12-year high.

But homelessness is not the same as rough sleeping. Most people officially classified as homeless are in temporary accommodation. The numbers in this desperate situation are a national disgrace too but Corbyn was asking specifically about rough sleepers.

There was a brief flurry of concern a year ago about how the numbers of people sleeping rough had doubled since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. Government ministers said many of the right things. Heather Wheeler, who was appointed minister for housing and homelessness in January this year, was asked how she would feel if rough sleeping got worse on her watch, and said: “Well, there are two answers to that: (a) it won’t and (b) I’d resign.”

Now, nearly a year later, the problem does indeed seem to have become worse. The official figures for England will be published next month, but many people all over the country tell me on Twitter that it is worse than ever. Fine reporting by Jennifer Williams of the Manchester Evening News has exposed the growing problem there. When I arrived at Westminster this morning, there were four rough sleepers on the doorstep of power. There has been at least one person there most of the year.

In 2010, rough sleeping simply ceased to be a government priority. Not even the Lib Dem presence in the coalition could keep it high on the list.

It is enough to make you weep. Rough sleeping was as close to being solved as such a difficult problem can be by the end of 13 years of Labour government in 2010. It was a shining example of what can be achieved by leadership, political will and modest resources. Tony Blair made a promise in 1998 to cut rough sleeping by two thirds and appointed Louise Casey to focus relentlessly on achieving the target.

She was the right kind of abrasive, activist personality. She upset people with some of her unsentimental comments, criticising charities for making the problem worse by organising soup runs instead of working on rehab and accommodation.

But then in 2010, rough sleeping simply ceased to be a government priority. Not even the Lib Dem presence in the coalition could keep it high on the list. Complacency had set in, and it is taking far too long for any sense of urgency to return. The coalition government started with a figure of 1,768 rough sleepers in England in the autumn of 2010, which had risen to 4,751 by the autumn of last year.

Theresa May seemed to realise she might have a problem. In August she pre-empted Philip Hammond’s Budget by announcing an extra tax on foreign buyers of UK property for a new rough sleeping fund.

But the urgency and leadership still seems lacking. It’s enough to make me ashamed to be British.