MP Labour’s Shadow
Housing Secretary, responding to new ONS figures
revealing that a record 726 people died homeless last year said:
“These figures are shameful in a country as rich
as ours.
“High and rising homelessness is not inevitable. The number of
people sleeping on our streets fell under Labour but has risen
since 2010 as a direct result of the Conservatives slashing
investment for low-cost homes, cutting back housing benefit,
reducing funding for homelessness services, and denying
protection to private renters.
“The next Labour government will end rough sleeping within a
Parliament and tackle the root causes of rising homelessness with
more affordable homes and stronger rights for renters.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
The latest ONS figures on the deaths of homeless people in
England and Wales, 2018 are available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsofhomelesspeopleinenglandandwales/2018.
o there were a record-high 726 deaths of
homeless people in England and Wales registered in 2018 – the
highest year-to-year increase (22 per cent) since records began
o the mean age at death was 45 years for males
and 43 years for females in 2018, compared to an average of 76
years for men and 81 years for women in the general population.
- · Labour has
committed to ending rough sleeping within its first five years in
government, and taking decisive action to tackle the causes of
rising homelessness with a million new genuinely affordable homes
over ten years and stronger rights for renters.
