London rough sleeping figures hit record high

Rough sleeping in London has hit a record high, new data shows.

A total of 11,993 people were seen rough sleeping in the capital in the year to March, according to the latest Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain) statistics.

It is the highest figure ever recorded in the database for a single year.

Homeless Link, the membership body for frontline homelessness services in England, called the rise “appalling” and urged the next government to “act decisively to address this crisis”.

The total number of rough sleepers in the year to March was up by 58% on the 7,581 people seen rough sleeping 10 years ago, in 2014-15.

Almost a fifth (17%) of new rough sleepers who had information recorded about their last settled base had previously been staying in asylum support accommodation, Chain said.

UK nationals made up 45% of all people seen rough sleeping in the year to March, compared with 49% the previous year.

Homeless Link chief executive, Rick Henderson, said there was a “crisis, both in the capital and across the country” and called on the next government to “create a cross-government plan to prevent rough sleeping and homelessness”.

He added that this should be done through delivering “genuinely affordable” housing, while ensuring there was a range of “properly-funded” homelessness services to help address the root causes of rough sleeping.

The Tory manifesto has vowed to continue plans to end rough sleeping “and prevent people from ending up on the streets in the first place, after making significant progress over the last few years”.

Labour has said in its manifesto to “develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country, to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness”.

The Liberal Democrats have also promised to end rough sleeping within the next Parliament by urgently publishing a cross-Whitehall plan and exempting groups of homeless people from the shared accommodation rate.