England now has a plan to end homelessness – here’s how to test whether it will work |
The UK has proved before that it can end homelessness. The Everyone In scheme during COVID lockdowns accommodated tens of thousands of people in emergency and supported housing, who would otherwise have continued sleeping rough.
But this was only temporary. Nearly six years later, the scale of the challenge is immense. In June 2025, 132,410 households were living in temporary accommodation, almost two-thirds of which were families with children.
The UK government has published a new homelessness strategy for England. The strategy speaks to different forms of homelessness, from rough sleeping to more hidden forms of homelessness, like sofa surfing.
This is a wide-ranging plan, bringing in approaches from different government departments. The £3.5 billion strategy aims to “address the root causes” of homelessness, firstly through a number of universal approaches.
Some of these have already been announced. The plan emphasises the government’s plan to build 1.5 million new homes during this parliament, reforms to renters’ rights, ending the two-child benefit cap and the youth guarantee to get more young people into work or education. It introduces a new commitment to........