04 November 2023 , 12:02
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Suella Braverman has demanded a crackdown on homeless people sleeping in tents as she claimed were living on the streets as a "lifestyle choice".
The hard-line Home Secretary wants to restrict use of tents that cause a nuisance, such as obstructing shop doorways, and to fine charities who help desperate people camp out on the streets as part of a bill in next week's King's Speech. She warned Britain's cities risked becoming like San Francisco or Los Angeles where "weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug taking, and squalor".
But charities branded the idea "cruelty dressed up as policy" which would only push people into further destitution. Labour's Lisa Nandy said: "Even by this Government’s standards, this is disgraceful. Imagine looking at the housing and homelessness crisis you’ve presided over and thinking, let’s take away their tents."
The Tory 2019 manifesto promised to end "the blight of rough sleeping" by the end of this Parliament but the Government was warned by experts last year it was unlikely to meet this pledge. Now Ms Braverman is drawing up plans to deter charities from giving tents to homeless people by making it a civil offence - leading to fines for those who break the law, according to the Financial Times.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman wants to fine charities who help desperate people camp out on the streets (Andy Stenning/Sunday Mirror)The number of people estimated to be sleeping rough in England rose for the first time since 2017, according to figures published earlier this year. A snapshot of a single night in autumn last year found 3,069 people sleeping rough, up 626 (26%) on the equivalent total for 2021 and nearly three-quarters (74%) above the level in 2010 when the figures began.
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Ms Braverman posted on Twitter: "The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.
"Unless we step in now to stop this, British cities will go the way of places in the US like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug taking, and squalor. Nobody in Britain should be living in a tent on our streets." She said there were options for people who don't want to sleep rough - and said rough sleepers in tents were causing "nuisance and distress" to the public.
But the cruel plans sparked an immediate backlash. Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: "This is grim politics from a desperate Conservative government which knows it's day are numbered. It is a new low for Braverman to criminalise homeless charities for simply trying to keep vulnerable people warm and dry in winter.
"The British public raise millions of pounds for homeless people at this time of year, and the government's response is to criminalise those charities trying to help. This policy will do nothing to stop rough sleeping and will leave vulnerable people to face the harsh weather conditions without any shelter whatsoever."
Matt Downie, Crisis Chief Executive, said: “If the Government pursues these proposals to criminalise the use of tents, then this is cruelty dressed up as policy. Like the Vagrancy Act, these draconian laws do nothing to tackle rough sleeping. Instead, all they do is push people further into destitution.
“We should not have people sleeping on the streets in the first place, but far too often this is the only option when they have nowhere else to go. So, we’d invite the Home Secretary to answer the question of what should people do: sleep out in extreme weather and expose themselves to greater risk of violence and abuse, or sleep in a tent? Because this is the life-or-death reality thousands will be forced to face because consecutive Governments have failed to build the truly affordable housing we need."
He called for greater investment in housing benefits and public services to help people out of homelessness rather than "stripping people of their only protection and endangering lives".
Jen Clark Amnesty’s Economic and Social Rights Lead, said: “Of course the Government likes to peddle the idea of ‘intentional homelessness’ it’s a very convenient cop out, but in truth the spiralling housing crisis is a result of systematic Government failures. We need to see housing recognised as a basic human right and protected in law so that we can hold the Government to account for its woeful failures. This is a useful distraction from any discussion about how far they are from delivering on their 2019 manifesto commitment to send rough sleeping by the end of this parliament.”
The Government vowed to repeal the archaic Vagrancy Act last year, which makes begging and rough sleeping illegal. It also published its Ending Rough Sleeping For Good strategy in September 2022 in which it restated its 2019 manifesto commitment to end rough sleeping by the end of this Parliament.