Government pledges to half number of rough sleepers by 2030 with £3.5bn of investment
Ministers have set out how they plan to use £3.5 billion to help people get off the streets
The number of people sleeping on the streets is set to be halved in the next five years under new Government plans.
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Ministers have set out how they plan to use £3.5 billion of investment which will focus on helping those on the streets and to stop others from falling down the same route.
The strategy – entitled the national plan to end homelessness – also includes a target to halve the number of ex-prisoners who become homeless on their first night out of jail and ensuring that no eligible person is discharged to the street after a hospital stay.
These measures will come into effect through a new “duty to collaborate”, as part of a law requiring public bodies to work together to prevent homelessness, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said.
The three pledges – to halve the number of long-term rough sleepers, end the unlawful use of B&Bs for families and prevent more households from becoming homeless in the first place – are all to be achieved by the end of this Parliament in 2029/30.
Long-term rough sleeping is defined by the Centre for Homelessness Impact as someone having been seen out within the reporting month and also in three or more months out of the past 12 months.
The strategy comes as housing charity Shelter said its research showed 382,618 people in England – including 175,025 children – will spend this Christmas without a home.
Shelter said it had combined official homelessness figures with responses to Freedom of Information requests to local authorities and estimated that on a given night this year one in 153 people will have been recorded as homeless.
The total was 8 per cent up on the 2024 number of 354,016 people.
Of the 2025 data, Shelter said 350,480 people were in temporary accommodation – a form of homelessness.The charity said at least 4,667 people people slept rough on any given night – up by a fifth in a year.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed said homelessness is "one of the most profound challenges we face as a society."
He added: "Through our new strategy we can build a future where homelessness is rare, brief, and not repeated. With record investment, new duties on public services, and a relentless focus on accountability, we will turn ambition into reality."
The plan includes the launch of a new £124 million supported housing scheme and a further £37 million of funding is aimed at increasing support and improving services from the voluntary, community and faith sectors which the Government said are often "at the frontline of this crisis."
The department said £950 million funding to local authorities will help boost the supply of good-quality temporary homes while £30 million will go towards preventing poor quality emergency accommodation being used.
Homelessness minister Alison McGovern said: "By working together including Government, local leaders, charities, and communities, we can stop homelessness before it happens and ensure that when people do fall into crisis, support is swift and effective.
"The prize is big. Right now, taxpayers are paying the price of failure, with temporary accommodation costs skyrocketing."
Shelter chief executive Sarah Elliott said the Government is "doing the right thing by giving this scandal the attention it deserves" but added: "We still badly need a plan to get the people who are currently stuck in temporary accommodation, or on the streets, into a safe home."
Crisis described the strategy as a "step in the right direction with much to be applauded" but said it "does have some important gaps."
The charity’s chief executive, Matt Downie, said: "To guarantee that homelessness numbers fall, this strategy needs more from other parts of government that address its root causes.
"Housing benefit remains frozen until at least 2030, there is no coherent approach for supporting refugees and stopping them becoming homeless;,and we hear no assurances that the new homes government has pledged to build will be allocated to households experiencing homelessness at the scale required."