{"id":689094,"date":"2026-01-11T14:48:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T14:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689094\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T14:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T14:48:31","slug":"london-rough-sleeping-up-63-per-cent-in-10-years-but-sadiq-khan-says-there-are-more-new-people-coming-to-the-capital-southwark-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689094\/","title":{"rendered":"London rough sleeping up 63 per cent in 10 years but Sadiq Khan says there are more new people coming to the capital \u2013 Southwark News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mayor of London has vowed to \u2018turn the tide\u2019 on rising levels of homelessness in the capital as figures show rough sleeping has increased by 63 per cent since he took office.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq Khan said he was determined to prevent people being forced to sleep on the streets \u201cat source\u201d with a strategy that focuses on prevention and early intervention. <\/p>\n

The number of people sleeping rough has increased from 8,096 in 2015\/16 to 13,231 \u2013 a 63 per cent increase, according to the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

However, the Mayor said he was \u201cconfident\u201d of bringing numbers down, and doubled down on his manifesto pledge to end rough sleeping entirely by 2030.<\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) during a visit to a homeless hotel in East London, where charities Crisis and St Mungo\u2019s are providing up to 180 rough sleepers with accommodation and other support due to \u00a3200,000 of funding from City Hall.<\/p>\n

The extension hotel, which usually only provides support over the festive period until the new year, will give guests a private room, three meals a day and expert advice from staff and volunteers until January 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last nine and a half years, we\u2019ve supported 20,000 rough sleepers,\u201d he told the LDRS in an exclusive interview. \u201cThree quarters of those have stayed off our streets, so that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is there are more and more new people coming to our capital city [and so] more and more people are ending up on our streets. That\u2019s why I\u2019m determined to prevent, at source, somebody becoming a rough sleeper in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that London, as a capital city, attracted people from across the country to sleep rough in, with charities noting that homeless individuals may see themselves as having a better chance to access vital services in the capital.<\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq also noted that London still had a better record overall than the UK, where rough sleeping is estimated to have spiked by 111 per cent since 2016 when it came to tackling homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever before in an eight-year period have so many rough sleepers been taken off of our streets,\u201d he said. \u201cNever before have so many been kept off our street.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the issue of more and more people coming onto our streets and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve published a plan of action to end rough sleeping for good by 2030. That includes things like \u2018Ending Homelessness hubs\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also invested in additional homes through \u2018Homes Off The Street\u2019, clearing homes for people to go to once they\u2019ve spent some time in a hospital and so forth. We\u2019re also trying to change the rules in relation to verification. At the moment, the rules are perverse. You must be on the streets, bedded in before you\u2019re entitled to support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat can\u2019t be right. There\u2019s almost an incentive to be rough sleeping because you don\u2019t get support without being a rough sleeper. So we\u2019re trying to change the verification rules as well. So with the plans in place, I\u2019m confident we can turn the tide of rough sleeping.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done it before. During my mayoral seat, during the pandemic, we did it. But also during the 2000s with the last Labour government, we did it. I\u2019m comfortable we can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Crisis\u2019 Director of Policy, Francesca Albanese, suggested that one of the major barriers faced when it comes to rehousing rough sleepers was a lack of affordable housing in London.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan visits a Crisis Extension Hotel in London. Facundo Arrizabalaga\/MyLondon<\/p>\n

\"\"Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan visits a Crisis Extension Hotel in London, Facundo Arrizabalaga\/MyLondon<\/p>\n

\"\"Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan visits a Crisis Extension Hotel in London Facundo Arrizabalaga\/MyLondon<\/p>\n

The Mayor has been criticised for failing to keep up with targets agreed with ministers \u2013 even after they were slashed last year \u2013 with data from the Greater London Authority (GLA) showing that developers made just 1,239 starts on affordable homes from April to September 2025, compared to 3,991 in the the previous financial year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the GLA and the government have got strategies to address homelessness and rough sleeping and they\u2019re really welcome,\u201d Ms Albanese told the LDRS.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019ve focused on prevention, they\u2019re focusing on people who have long-term needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I would say needs to be different is we need more genuinely affordable housing now. That is the biggest barrier we face, both within our services at Crisis, but also the needs of the guests in this hotel. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yes, there is commitment to building more social housing, but in London the targets have been dropped recently, and we need those to increase in terms of access to social housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need affordable housing, now. In London less than four per cent of homes are affordable and that would make a massive difference now in terms of what people need and to help people move out of homeless into a home of their own.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mayor of London has vowed to \u2018turn the tide\u2019 on rising levels of homelessness in the capital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-689094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115877020310846661","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}