Downing Street has announced a further £432m for its programme to end rough sleeping in England, taking total funding to £874m and extending the scheme to the end of the parliament in 2029. The Chancellor, John Healey, is due to confirm the money in Wednesday's Budget.
No 10 issued the announcement late on Sunday, the day before Andy Burnham hosts charities, businesses and local leaders at Downing Street for what the government describes as the first national summit on rough sleeping.
The extra money almost doubles the £442m Rough Sleeping Programme announced in August, when the prime minister pledged that everyone sleeping rough in England would be offered a route off the streets before Christmas. It is a narrower measure than overall homelessness spending. According to a written parliamentary answer on 1 September, the £442m took total investment in homelessness and rough sleeping services over three years to more than £4bn.
Burnham said: "Rough sleeping isn't a fact of life. It's a thing governments either choose to accept or don't. Well, I don't accept it. That's why we're doubling funding so that people aren't just offered a safe route off the streets this winter but have that same support right through the rest of this Parliament too."
The prime minister made ending rough sleeping his first instruction on taking office on 20 July. Programme guidance published in August sets the immediate priority as moving as many people as possible off the street and into accommodation before Christmas 2026, followed by longer-term settled accommodation and intensive support.
The Christmas commitment is an offer of a route off the streets rather than a guarantee that nobody will be sleeping rough. At the Labour conference in September Burnham described his mission as ending "the need for rough sleeping".
Mayoral strategic authorities and councils deliver the programme. Specialist outreach teams and new accommodation are already operating in Coventry, the Guardian reported, with further rollout in Plymouth and Camden over the coming weeks.
The latest official snapshot, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in February, estimated that 4,793 people were sleeping rough on a single night in England in autumn 2025. That was up 3% on 2024, the highest figure since the count began and 171% above the 1,768 recorded in 2010. Shelter and Crisis say the snapshot is likely to undercount the true number, particularly of women.
The Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, whose department runs the programme, said: "This summit is about bringing every part of society together behind that mission."
Mairi MacRae, acting chief executive of Shelter, welcomed the funding. She said: "Matching the money with new commitments from businesses, local leaders and charities demonstrates that we can choose to end rough sleeping as a society."
The Conservatives attacked the announcement by pointing to Burnham's record as Mayor of Greater Manchester, where he launched the A Bed Every Night scheme in 2018. Katie Lam, the shadow housing secretary, said: "Burnham is throwing another £432 million at a problem he failed to solve in Greater Manchester."
Downing Street has not said whether the £432m is new Treasury money or has been found from within existing departmental budgets. The August package was described at the time as fully funded within MHCLG budgets. The split between capital and revenue spending, the annual profile and local allocations have not been published.
The government has also not released figures on how many people have been offered or accepted a route off the streets since August. Full Fact, the fact-checking organisation, rated the pledge "wait and see" on 29 September, saying it was too early to assess how levels of rough sleeping had changed.
Monday's summit is expected to produce commitments from businesses and charities alongside the funding. The Budget on Wednesday is the first of Healey's chancellorship.
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