The Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto promised something big: the party would end the “blight of rough sleeping” by the next election. At the time, then-PM Boris Johnson said homelessness “cannot be right” and pledged he would “work tirelessly” to end it.
Four years on, one of the key policies intended to get people off the streets is still in its pilot stage, more people are dying homeless than before, and the number of people sleeping rough is going up. Both Labour and Tory MPs say not enough is being done, with even Conservative housing secretary Michael Gove casting doubt on the party’s chances of ending street homelessness by the next election.
One Tory MP we spoke to believes the government bungled its chance by failing to keep up the momentum of its Covid-era anti-homelessness drive, Everyone In. But others in the sector believe the pledge was doomed from the outset.
