Rayner: rough sleeping will no longer be a crime

Telegraph

2 days ago

Rough sleeping is to be decriminalised as the Government abolishes a 200-year-old law that made it illegal.
The Vagrancy Act, introduced in 1824 to tackle a homelessness crisis after the Industrial Revolution, is to be repealed by next spring, Angela Rayner has announced.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the move would 'draw a line under nearly two centuries of injustice towards some of the most vulnerable in society, who deserve dignity and support'.
It means it will no longer be an offence to sleep on a pavement, despite rising levels of homelessness across England. It raises the prospect of homeless people being able to freely camp on city centre streets.
However, Labour is pledging to increase funding for homelessness services with an extra £233 million this financial year to provide alternatives to rough sleeping.
New laws to protect the public will also be introduced to target organised begging by gangs, and trespassing with the intention to commit a crime.
Announcing the moves, Ms Rayner said the aim was to tackle the root causes of homelessness, rather than criminalise the vulnerable.
'No one should ever be criminalised simply for sleeping rough and by scrapping this cruel and outdated law, we are making sure that can never happen again,' she said.
The Vagrancy Act was designed to punish 'idle and disorderly persons, and rogues and vagabonds, in England' as Britain faced rising homelessness after the Napoleonic wars and the Industrial Revolution.
Most parts of the Act have been repealed but some remain in force in England and Wales to enable police to move on rather than prosecute rough sleepers and tackle begging.
Charities have reported an increase in homelessness, with Shelter estimating there are 326,000 people, including 161,500 children, in England who are homeless, a 14 per cent increase on the previous year.
It has led to encampments sprouting up in some of the most prosperous areas of cities. Last September, rough sleepers set up an encampment of 24 tents on Park Lane, adjacent to a property selling for £16.5 million.
London has the highest rate of homelessness. The number of people classed as living on the streets in the capital has risen by more than a third (38 per cent) year on year – to 706 from 511 – according to figures for April.
The number recorded as sleeping rough in London has also increased by 8 per cent, to 4,427 in the three months to March this year, from 4,118 in the same quarter last year.
The UK's decision to decriminalise rough sleeping contrasts with the US, where the Supreme Court last summer gave cities the green light to crack down on homeless encampments.
The US, in particular San Francisco, has been blighted by homelessness, leaving cities struggling with large tented encampments and drug problems.
The Supreme Court ruled that cities enforcing anti-camping bans did not violate the constitution's eighth amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, even if homeless people had nowhere else to go.
The judgment has resulted in rules including barring sleeping bags, forcing homeless people to move 300 feet every hour and making it illegal to camp anywhere at any time.
Ms Rayner's department said the extra £233 million this financial year would bring total investment for 2025-26 to nearly £1 billion. It said this would prevent more families from ending up in temporary accommodation and 'tackle rough sleeping head-on'.
It comes as separate Telegraph analysis suggested foreign-born heads of households in London cost Britain around £3.6 billion a year in discounted rent.
Rushanara Ali, the homelessness minister, said: 'Scrapping the Vagrancy Act for good is another step forward in our mission to tackle homelessness in all its forms, by focusing our efforts on its root causes.'
Amendments to the Government's Crime and Policing Bill will plug the gaps left by the repeal of the Vagrancy Act. These will create new offences of facilitating begging for gain and an offence of trespassing with the intention of committing a crime, both of which were previously included under the 1824 Act.
In 2023, the Prince of Wales launched a five-year programme to work towards eradicating homelessness. He previously discussed the issue with Sir Keir Starmer and has served meals to homeless people and sold copies of the Big Issue on the street to raise awareness.
Matt Downie, the chief executive of Crisis, the homelessness charity, said: 'This is a landmark moment that will change lives and prevent thousands of people from being pushed into the shadows, away from safety.'
Emma Haddad, the St Mungo's chief executive, said the Act's repeal 'cannot come soon enough' and called for a 'focus on tackling the health, housing and wider societal issues that are causing homelessness in the first place'.
Youth homelessness charity Centrepoint warned that a challenge would be 'ensuring that proposed amendments don't have the unintended consequences of punishing people instead of supporting them'.