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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Jessica Murray Social affairs correspondent

‘It’s generations of decline’: can Andy Burnham really end rough sleeping?

A person sleeps under a blue blanket on a pavement in a doorway, with two pigeons nearby
A rough sleeper in south London. Burnham’s pledge has been welcomed by homelessness charities but with some scepticism. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

It is close to midnight as two outreach workers from Spear, a homelessness charity in south London, shine their torches around bushes on the edge of a park in Twickenham.

Suddenly they alight on an array of sleeping bags, airbeds, toilet rolls and plastic bags stuffed with belongings – a rough sleeping encampment that has popped up in the last two days.

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