Greater Manchester gets £500k to tackle rough sleeping this winter - but one borough misses out

Greater Manchester will get half a million pounds to help tackle rough sleeping this winter - but one borough will miss out on funding.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has announced the emergency £10m fund to protect rough sleepers from cold weather. The funding equals the amount that the previous Conservative government had allocated for rough sleeping by the end of last winter.

Last year, 155 people died sleeping rough on our streets, according to the government which says this funding will help 'save lives'. It comes as Ms Rayner, who is the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, promises to end 'sticking plaster' measures when tackling homelessness.

READ MORE: Homeless families from London are being 'dumped' in Manchester, MPs told

Nine of the 10 councils in Greater Manchester will get a share of the £10m package with the city-region receiving £515,738 in total. By far the largest share will go to Manchester which has been allocated £187,053, with Salford receiving the second highest with £69,712.

Seven other councils will receive between £20,000 and £50,000 from the fund - but Trafford will not receive any of the funding. The government says the money will go to councils in the highest need, giving rough sleepers a 'safe and warm' place to sleep this winter.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, said: “Anyone forced to sleep rough on our streets represents a complete failure of the broken system we've inherited. It's a national disgrace, and we can’t keep sticking plasters on it. We are approaching the harshest months of the year which is why we are taking immediate action to reach anyone sleeping rough and help them off the streets this winter.

“Bringing together Ministers across government is a crucial step to tackle this crisis at its root and ensure everyone has access to the basic right of safe and secure housing.”

Chairing the first cross-government group on tackling homelessness today (November 6), Ms Rayner will pledge to end 'sticking plaster' measures, and instead tackle the root cause of the problem. The government says this taskforce is one of the first steps in its plan to develop a long-term strategy to tackle all forms of homelessness, bringing together healthcare, justice and education systems.

It follows a sharp rise in rough sleeping across the country, which is nearing record levels. Unprecedented numbers of children are in temporary accommodation and almost 360,000 households approached their council for help with homelessness in the last year.

In September, the Manchester Evening News revealed that one in every 33 children in Manchester are without a permanent home. Speaking in a parliamentary inquiry yesterday (November 5), one local charity spoke of the 'massive impact' this is having on families.

Last week in the Budget, an additional £233m was announced to tackle all forms of homelessness, taking total spending on reducing homelessness to nearly £1bn next year. The government says this money will directly fund homelessness prevention services and support people into secure, stable housing, helping those at risk of homelessness to pay deposits and negotiate with landlords, reducing the overall need for temporary accommodation which is currently costing councils in Greater Manchester £65m a year.

Alongside this, the government has promised to deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housing in a generation, with £500m in new funding for the Affordable Homes Programme delivering up to 5,000 new social homes. Councils will also be able to keep 100 per cent of proceeds from all Right to Buy sales, enabling them to re-invest in more social housing available for families.