Burnham pledges £442m to end rough sleeping in England by Christmas

The PM said he wants to get everyone in for the holidays

Why the rough sleeping figures matter

Official data counted an estimated 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in England in the autumn of 2025, which is a 96 per cent rise in five years.

That said, the annual snapshot is seen as significantly undercounting the problem because of strict collection rules.

The previous Conservative government had pledged to end rough sleeping by 2024.

Burnham, who has spent years donating a share of his salary to a homelessness charity, is framing the scheme as a national drive led by local leaders rather than a Whitehall handout.

Shadow housing secretary James Cleverly said there was "little detail" about how the initiative would be paid for or delivered.

Chloe, 27, from London, who slept in parks after leaving the care system, told BBC News that no rough sleeper would turn down a bed if it came with the right support.

However, she warned that hidden homelessness and sofa-surfing had been "normalised".

The test is whether a Christmas deadline can shift a number that has almost doubled in five years.