Westminster is the epicentre of the national rough sleeping crisis, a Telegraph investigation has found. Cllr David Harvey, Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration, told the paper the council and the charities it works with offer a bed to almost everyone sleeping on Westminster’s streets “pretty much every day”, and Deputy Leader Cllr Caroline Sargent warned that Labour’s repeal of the Vagrancy Act has reduced the police’s ability to act.
In the year to March, 2,583 people slept rough in Westminster, one in five of London’s rough sleepers. The vast majority are not from the area, but come for the services, the community, the drug market or simply because it is a place they recognise.
Cllr Harvey said that each night as many as 30 per cent of the people outreach teams reach turn the offer of a bed down. “Most of the people out there have had some sort of pretty horrible trauma in their life. So inside their own head, it’s a rational decision sometimes to refuse,” he said.
Cllr Sargent described four broad groups on Westminster’s streets: people who have fallen on hard times and usually accept help quickly; a group around Park Lane and Marble Arch who beg aggressively and often refuse support; people with no recourse to public funds because of their immigration status; and a “street population” with complex needs. “These people might have rooms in hostels or even housing but they have very complex mental health and often addiction needs and they are out on the street,” she said. “They are begging but because people don’t have cash any more, they often resort to shoplifting.”
Both councillors regretted the reduction in local policing, and Cllr Sargent said the repeal of the Vagrancy Act had reduced the police’s enforcement powers.
The Telegraph found that other parts of Government are adding to the problem. More than a quarter of London’s rough sleepers have previously been in prison, while the Government has begun the early release of 5,000 inmates. Rents in England have risen 39 per cent since 2019, local housing allowance has been frozen since April 2024, and the Budget adds two more points of tax on rental income from April, pushing more landlords to sell up.
The Prime Minister has promised to end rough sleeping and committed nearly £900 million to the effort. Charities welcomed the money, but warned that the real test is keeping people off the streets for good.
