Andy Burnham made ending rough sleeping the first policy pledge of his prime ministership on Monday, announcing £340m to provide 1,200 homes and intensive support for at least 3,000 people in England over five years. Standing outside Downing Street, Burnham said he wanted a government “investing in people’s success rather than paying for failure.”
The promise echoes one he made as Greater Manchester mayor in 2017, when he vowed to end rough sleeping in the city region by 2020. He failed. Figures published in 2025 showed rough sleeping had increased year-on-year, though it had fallen compared to 2017. Across England, the latest official estimate counted 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 – a record high and the fourth annual increase in a row. In Greater Manchester, the number rose from 268 in 2017 to 154 in autumn 2024, then to 197 in 2025, according to the Manchester Mill.
“Burnham pledges to end rough sleeping and cuts VAT on energy bills in first day as PM, facing funding scrutiny.”
The new prime minister’s first major policy announcement, however, was a tax cut: removing VAT on energy bills for six months from 1 October, saving a typical household £45 and trimming inflation by about 0.1 percentage points. The move, which Burnham said would provide “breathing space” for households, is expected to cost £850m in 2026-27. Downing Street said it would be funded by scrapping Keir Starmer’s digital ID programme, a £1.8bn project over three years. But Darren Jones, sacked as chief secretary to the prime minister in Burnham’s reshuffle, questioned that plan, posting on X that the digital ID scheme itself was “unfunded.”
Conservative shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly accused Burnham of offering “precious little detail” on how the rough sleeping policy would be paid for, and asked whether other projects had been “salami-sliced to fill the gap.” He added: “In Manchester, Burnham promised to end rough sleeping, but failed because he didn’t do the hard work necessary. Now, again, he is making pledges without any plan for delivery.”
The new chancellor, John Healey, faces the task of funding the agenda while sticking to Labour’s fiscal rules and a manifesto pledge not to raise taxes on working people. The Resolution Foundation estimated the headroom against the fiscal rule had shrunk from £23.6bn at the spring statement to about £10bn. “There is no spare cash lying around,” the thinktank said. Helen Miller, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the VAT cut was a poor tool for helping low-income households because “the biggest cash gains will go towards richer households.”
Burnham’s record in Greater Manchester includes the Bed Every Night scheme, to which he donated 15% of his salary, now providing more than 600 beds a night. The city region also pioneered a Housing First approach based on a Finnish model. The New Statesman reported that Greater Manchester’s public service reform principles – organising around people and places, investing in prevention, fostering collaboration, and working with communities – have influenced the government’s own reform principles.
But with rough sleeping at a record high and funding under intense scrutiny, the question hangs over Burnham’s first day: can he deliver what he could not in Manchester?
