The government’s decision to decriminalise rough sleeping by repealing the Vagrancy Act of 1824 has been met with outrage and wringing hands. For some, the police losing their powers to move rough sleepers on evokes the prospect of tent cities and businesses plagued by people living in doorways.

Yet the change, which will be formally enacted today, is really only a rationalisation which brings the law into line with reality. Last time it was in power, Labour pledged to dramatically reduce the numbers of people on the streets. Set up in 1999, the Rough Sleepers Unit brought together local government, the police, health services and the voluntary sector to, as homelessness tsar Louise Casey said earnestly when I interviewed her, encourage rough sleepers to ‘come in from the cold’.

The homeless sat in Trafalgar Square in their hundreds, with smaller groups settling in the surrounding streets

The homeless sat in Trafalgar Square in their hundreds, with smaller groups settling in the surrounding streets

The numbers of rough sleepers took a dip but rose again post-credit crunch. In 2018, the Conservative government launched a strategy which aimed, by doing something clever with stamp duty receipts, to end rough sleeping in England by 2027.

Lockdown presented the government with a particular challenge: how could you confine the entire population to their homes while some people were........

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