Boris Johnson pledges £236million to end rough sleeping ‘once and for all’


Boris Johnson pledges £236million to end rough sleeping ‘once and for all’ and provide accommodation for 6,000

  • The PM will pledge nearly a quarter of a billion pounds to end rough sleeping 
  • £236 million fund will be used to accommodate up to 6,000 homeless people
  • Boris Johnson said it is ‘simply unacceptable’ we have so many rough sleepers

Boris Johnson will today pledge almost a quarter of a billion pounds to end rough sleeping ‘once and for all’.

A £236 million fund will be used by councils to provide accommodation for up to 6,000 homeless people.

The Prime Minister said: ‘It is simply unacceptable that we still have so many people sleeping on the streets. I am absolutely determined to end rough sleeping once and for all.’

Official figures to be published today are expected to indicate that the number of people spending nights outdoors in London has risen again.

A £236 million fund will be used by councils to provide accommodation for up to 6,000 homeless people (file photo)

Official figures to be published today are expected to indicate that the number of people spending nights outdoors in London has risen again (file photo)

Official figures to be published today are expected to indicate that the number of people spending nights outdoors in London has risen again (file photo)

However, the count from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is also expected to show that outside the capital the number of rough sleepers has fallen for the second year running.

Last year’s figures for the whole of England showed that on a single autumn night there were 4,677 rough sleepers. In London, there were nearly 1,300 people on the streets on a single autumn night.

Mr Johnson has also appointed Government tsar Dame Louise Casey to lead a review into rough sleeping.