Sadiq Khan: ‘How I’ll finish tough sleeping in London after years of Tory neglect’

Every night someone spends on our streets, is a night spent exposed to the threat of the ­elements, to violence and to loneliness.

It’s an experience that eats away at the humanity they deserve. Such is the toll taken, the average age at death for a homeless person is 45 for men and 43 for women.

I believe no one should have to survive in a shop front, a park or an abandoned building. And in May, I was re-elected on a manifesto that included a pledge to work with the new government to end rough sleeping in our capital by 2030.

This week, we began the task with a £4.8million funding extension for rough sleeping services at an emergency summit involving national government, councils, charities and people with lived experience of homelessness. And early next year, we’ll publish our full Action Plan for how we could set London on course to meet this promise.

Addressing London’s rough sleeping crisis has always been a priority for me. Since I was elected Mayor, we’ve quadrupled City Hall’s rough sleeping budget. To date, we’ve successfully supported over 17,600 people off the streets and into more secure accommodation. More than three-quarters of those helped were not seen sleeping rough again.

We’ve also exceeded the government’s target of starting 116,000 new genuinely affordable homes in the capital, started more council homes than at any time since the 1970s and set a new target for 40,000 more.

Despite all our investment and initiatives, our latest figures showed the total number of people sleeping rough in our capital continues to rise, just as it does across our country.

It’s no mystery how this happened. The last Tory government was responsible for the worst decline in living standards on record, sending mortgages and rents spiralling, and failing to build enough homes. At the same time, they vandalised the social safety net, slashed councils’ homelessness budgets and made mental health care inaccessible.

Ending rough sleeping in London will not be easy but homelessness is not some natural, stubborn feature of society. And with winter approaching, we must redouble efforts to solve it.

We know the last Labour government all but eradicated rough sleeping. Working with this new one, we can condemn this scandal to history for good. The additional £500m affordable housing funding in the Budget shows this government is committed to tackling Britain’s homelessness emergency.

Helping rough sleepers off the street is just the start, not the end of the support they need to rebuild their lives. I know the journey can feel overwhelming, but the message in London is that we care, we refuse to give up hope and more support is coming so we can help you every step of the way.