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Burnham wants to end rough sleeping. But he's barking up the wrong tree.

23 0
27.10.2026

Andy Burnham's clearly passionate about homelessness and taking action. Great. But this won't work.

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His Downing Street summit on rough sleeping today is worth doing and the additional £432 million will help, somewhat. But, sorry for being blunt here, he and his mates are barking up the wrong tree.

I've spent more than a decade raising £7m to fight homelessness and also raise awareness of the issues it brings. I've tried to help those who suffer it and challenge our society that facilitates it. Yes, we do facilitate homelessness.

We don't even try to fix it. Not really.

The billions we throw at the crisis each year only manage politicians' consciences - usefully giving ministers some media soundbites that sound semi-plausible.

But, incredibly few people are pulled out of homelessness by political action.

Far too many are left tortured and unfulfilled, populating our pavements and the crummy rooms above shops and takeaways.

And there are two big reasons we're failing.

First, we're scared to acknowledge........

© LBC