Burnham pledges to get thousands of rough sleepers off streets for Christmas – UK politics live

Andy Burnham has admitted government funding “may not fully be enough” to achieve his aim of offering a place to stay to every rough sleeper by Christmas, as he made a “rallying call” for communities to get behind his plan.

Speaking on a visit to the north-east of England, the prime minister said:

double quotation mark The government money itself may not fully be enough. So I am saying, putting the call out to community and voluntary organisations – we’re at one here in Newcastle today, doing fantastic work.

But we’re saying to the wider community, voluntary, and faith sector: come on, let’s get behind this. Let’s show what Britain can do when we all pull in the same direction.

double quotation mark We did it in the pandemic, we can do it again, and it’s a rallying call, really, that I’m putting out there today with a lot of government money behind it.

Burnham also defended his previous record on homelessness in Greater Manchester, saying:

double quotation mark We did bring the numbers right down, but because we were the only area providing a high level of support, more people started to travel and it became difficult.