“Well, obviously, the numbers have gone up,” said chancellor Philip Hammond when asked about rough sleeping, though he declined to say by how much. I can tell him the answer: rough sleeping has gone up by 169% since 2010 when the Conservatives returned to power. In my typical political point-scoring fashion, I should point out that rough-sleeping was virtually eliminated under Tony Blair’s New Labour government. It is not a coincidence that the numbers are soaring out of control. It’s a clear political decision.
Late in the day, Hammond announces an extra £50 million to tackle the subject. That sounds a lot, doesn’t it, except that it will be a mere though nonetheless welcome drop in the ocean. It’s a welcome drop in the ocean because at least it is an acknowledgement that we have a serious issue with rough sleeping.
I know how this argument can play out with the public. Some of those rough sleepers are alcoholics and drug addicts, so it’s their own fault. If you don’t actually look at the facts and the reasons for rough-sleeping, it can be a simple explanation and somehow a justification to do nothing. But it is no such thing.
Of there are people on the streets who are suffering from chemical and alcohol abuse, this is surely no reason to ignore them, hope they will go away until they die, preferably somewhere we won’t see them until they die. If someone is gripped by addiction, they need help. They are human beings, whether we are cynical about their lifestyles. Yes, some of them steal in order to eat or feed their drug habits. By doing nothing, no one wins.
I was in the centre of Bristol yesterday and lost count of the number of rough-sleepers and those begging for money. If I had been so inclined, I could have handed over all my money and still there would be more people asking for help. I know, from experience of speaking with those who work with the homeless and rough-sleepers that is not always wise to give money because more often than not you do nothing to alleviate the problems. Sometimes, you make things worse, playing into the endless cycle of begging, stealing, dealing in drugs from people who are drug addicts themselves, funding those at the top of organised crime.
When David Cameron formed his Conservative government in 2010, in which some Liberal Democrats had jobs, he chose brutal austerity as being necessary after the financial crash of 2008. That austerity has impacted more on the low paid, the vulnerable, the sick and disabled and the weakest in society. Public services have been pared to the bone and with it the safety net for the most vulnerable, among them rough sleepers. Cameron and now Theresa May have chosen this path. They are directly responsible for the homeless people on our streets.
Tomorrow, chancellor Hammond holds the annual budget, with the prime minister having announced that austerity is over. I read today that if May’s promise is really true, Hammond would have to announce an additional £19 billion in public spending. But it isn’t true. May was buying some short term political gain. Whatever happens tomorrow, austerity won’t be over and Hammond will get the blame.
And with thousands of people sleeping on the streets up and down our green and pleasant land, many will never forget who helped put them there. Cameron, George Osborne, May and Philip Hammond.
