Sadiq’s £10,000,000 pledge to wipe out rough sleeping in London if he’s re-elected

The number of rough sleepers in London rose sharply last year (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Sadiq Khan has set himself the target of ending rough sleeping in London altogether by 2030 if voters hand him a third term as mayor next month.

The Labour incumbent unveiled his plans – which would involve £10 million in funding – in a speech earlier today.

At the end of his first term in 2021, the number of people sleeping rough on London’s streets had reduced by almost a fifth – but last year, it reached record-breaking levels.

Between October and December, a total of 4,389 people were recorded as rough sleeping in the capital, according to data from Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain).

That was the highest quarterly figure since records began 10 years ago.

To try and combat the worrying trend, the mayor wants to build a network of ‘ending homelessness hubs’ which would help an extra 1,700 rough sleepers every year.

They’d be able to check into the hubs for rapid reassessment and rehousing.

But Mr Khan’s biggest rival in the May 2 election, Conservative Susan Hall, said it was ‘yet another promise that Sadiq Khan will fail to deliver’.

She added: ‘Sadiq Khan has only started building 4% of the affordable homes he promised in the latest programme, and it is his failure that has kept people stuck in temporary accommodation and made it harder to get rough sleepers off the streets.

‘We cannot solve homelessness without solving the housing crisis, which is why I have pledged to build more family homes Londoners can afford.’

The mayor’s announcement came as charity Centrepoint, which works to combat youth homelessness, said councils would need more than £300 million from Westminster to help make a dent in the crisis.

One London borough council – Newham, in the east of the city – might need as much as £32 million extra to meet the needs of young locals facing homelessness.

Tory candidate Susan Hall doesn’t think Mr Khan will pull off his pledge (Picture: Reuters)

Some local authorities aren’t even able to carry out their legal duty in carrying out assessments of everyone who asks them for help, the charity said.

Alicia Walker, Centrepoint’s head of policy, research and campaigns, said: ‘Councils have a legal duty to assess anyone who presents as homeless, but we are deeply concerned that they do not have the means to carry out these duties.

‘It’s not good enough that so many young people are not getting the chance of that assessment, let alone accessing support.’

A spokesperson for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the government is spending £1.2 billion over three years to ‘give councils the funding they need to prevent homelessness’, and would provider further support ‘with our dedicated youth homelessness advisor roles’.

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