Andy Burnham made his first policy promise as Prime Minister

The first steps will include helping long-term sleepers move into safe housing and “find suitable housing,” the government said.

Burnham, in a statement after his first speech in Downing Street, said: “On my first day as Prime Minister, I will announce this Government’s determination to end the long-term rough sleeper in the UK with the last chance.

“We will move quickly to mobilize national and local government with the necessary investment.”

The latest annual national statistics, published by the government in February this year, show that 4,793 people will be rough sleeping in England by autumn 2025.

This was a new record and the fourth consecutive annual increase.

The number of people in Greater Manchester who were found to be rough sleeping overnight was 268 in 2017, 149 in 2023 and 154 in autumn 2024.

Manchester Mill reported, External By 2025, the figure will rise to 197.

Hours before his first Downing Street speech, Burnham visited homelessness charity The Passage in Victoria, London.

Burnham, challenged about his record, said since he first became mayor of Greater Manchester, “the problem has gone down a lot”.

He told the broadcasters, “We have planned 600 beds every night, which is called “one bed at night”, and we have provided financial support in various ways. But we were working alone.

“And if it’s just you, you can’t keep the numbers down and people from other cities are coming to Manchester.

“So it taught me that the only way is to do it together.”

Burnham mentioned Everyone in the planning during the covid-19 pandemicHelping thousands of rough sleepers across England with housing.

It all pulls in the same direction as we did with the pandemic, because we brought people into the pandemic.

“And that’s what I’m saying when I come into government today. We did it then, we can do it now, fix the basics, take care of people in everything we do and make this country work again the way it should.”

Burnham’s promise echoed Created by former Labor leader Jeremy CorbynThe party has promised to provide 8,000 homes “immediately” for people with a history of rough sleeping if they win office.