The North East region’s two metro mayors, Kim McGuinness and Lord Ben Houchen, are getting almost £10mn over three years to help them achieve Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s ambition to get rough sleepers off three streets. Charities are getting around £3mn more. The announcement came on the day Burnham went to the West End of Newcastle during his first North East visit as Prime Minister.
Kim McGuinness will receive almost £6.9mn by 2028/29 for the North East and Lord Houchen has been allocated £3.1mn for Tees Valley. They will get £1,219,192 and £689,901 of the money respectively in the current financial year. All funding will be split between revenue and capital.
A government statement accompanying the funding recalls that the Prime Minister, on his first day in office, announced an urgent national drive to end rough sleeping at the earliest opportunity.
“The Prime Minister has set his ambition to tackle one of the starkest injustices in the country and he is clear that everybody should have a route off the streets this winter, says the government.
“For too long, we have turned a blind eye to rough sleeping in the belief that ending it will take decades or is impossible. This government is making a different choice. We want this country to be a place where people have the security of a roof over their head, and no-one is left behind or written off.
“But we are also clear that national government does not have all the answers. It will be through local leaders, charities, purpose-driven businesses, community groups and volunteers that we make the change we all want to see. There is a great wealth of expertise across civil society, from those who have been homeless themselves to those who work to support them, all of which will be critical to this national effort.
All off the street by Christmas
“That is why we are launching a new national Rough Sleeping Programme [combining] immediate provision for a route off the street for everyone before Christmas this year, with longer-term settled accommodation and intensive support for people who have experienced long-term rough sleeping.
“Together, these interventions are intended to help people urgently move away from rough sleeping by Christmas, while building sustainable routes into settled homes and ongoing support.
“The Programme will be led by local areas (including both Mayoral Strategic Authorities and local authorities), providing flexibility to deliver the support and accommodation needed in their community to help people off the streets.”
The Programme will provide funding for:
- a ‘route off the streets’, to ensure every area can make an offer of support or accommodation, so that people sleeping rough have a route off the streets before Christmas this year. Alongside accommodation, this will provide wider support services to people sleeping rough, including identifying a route into more permanent accommodation through the private rented sector, social housing sector, supported housing sector or the focused scheme outlined below, where appropriate
- settled accommodation with intensive wraparound support, to fund the delivery of long-term homes and intensive support for people who have experienced the longest periods of rough sleeping and face the greatest barriers to leaving the streets permanently. This includes preventative work to ensure that where possible people don’t sleep rough, and work to ensure that people successfully transition from rough sleeping into settled accommodation. “We”, said the government “expect the first new homes to be delivered from 2027/28, with support provided from winter 2026 to prepare people experiencing long-term rough sleeping to move into settled accommodation.
“Together,” it added “the Programme will provide immediate relief to support people sleeping rough this winter, as well as a targeted accommodation-led programme to support people who have spent the longest on our streets, including those who have not been able to engage with the support they need and who have often been failed by previous interventions. This, alongside existing work being done at a local level, will create sustainable, joined up pathways away from rough sleeping.
“The immediate priority is to move as many people as possible off the street and into accommodation before Christmas this year (2026). Local areas will begin developing and delivering settled accommodation as soon as possible, alongside delivering off the street support and accommodation this winter.
“These offers should prioritise people sleeping rough who do not currently have an alternative route off the streets, while targeting settled accommodation and intensive support at those with the most severe and long-term experiences of rough sleeping.
“Not everyone supported through the ‘routes off the street’ accommodation offer will require or be eligible for the longer-term settled accommodation offer. Local areas should therefore consider move-on and onward support arrangements from the outset to ensure off-the-street accommodation remains available for people new to sleeping rough and to avoid creating unnecessary pressure on temporary accommodation. Accommodation offers could include enhancing existing provision or bringing forward new options to create a pipeline of long-term homes for people with the highest levels of need.”
The Programme will provide £442mn of funding over three years to Mayoral Strategic Authorities and local authorities, comprising:
- £255.5mn in revenue funding for the ‘routes off the street’ provision and both immediate and ongoing wraparound support;
- £178mn in capital funding for the settled accommodation programme
- £8.4mn additional funding for the Ending Homelessness in Communities Fund (which sits outside of the main programme).
North East charities
Charities in Tyne and Wear, Teesside and Durham have been awarded over £3mn over the next three years under the Ending Homelessness and Communities Fund. Action Foundation is getting £783,870 to carry out work in Newcastle and 2 Way Tenancy Solutions has been allocated £744,768 for Gateshead and South Tyneside. There is £370,004 for Handcrafted Projects in Durham and £212,707 for Churches Mission to the Single Homeless in Stockton. Homeless Action will receive £754,961 to share between Sunderland and Blackpool.
They are among 99 allocations throughout England totalling £47mn from Ending Homelessness and Communities Fund 2026, which is earmarked for small to medium-sized voluntary, community and faith sector charities.
The funding, which includes both capital and revenue, is subject to the successful completion of grant funding agreements.
The Fund, according to government guidance “puts communities at the heart of our national effort by enabling the sector to strengthen community-based support, transform day services, help individuals live independently and prevent homelessness and rough sleeping.”
Through this Fund, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will support organisations to achieve three key objectives:
- community-based support – to improve the quality, capacity, or reach of voluntary, community and faith groups to develop long-term solutions to prevent and reduce rough sleeping;
- day services – to improve the quality, capacity or reach of day services for people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping;
- recovery – to improve support for a person once they have moved into settled accommodation, using the local community to develop a support network.
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