The Conservative chair of the London Assembly has criticised the Mayor of London for his record on rough sleeping during his time in office.
Andrew Boff, a Conservative member and Assembly chair, questioned why Sadiq Khan had not committed more of his resources to tackling the issue.
It comes as the government announced that it has tripled its rough sleeping winter funding from £10m to £30m, with London receiving over £8m in funding to support local services providing beds for those sleeping rough long term.
Boff, who sits on the London Assembly’s Housing Committee, said: “Unfortunately in London, since the mayor got to office, rough sleeping has increased by 50%.
“That’s a very sad statistic when you consider the cold nights we’ve been having, it’s a national disgrace.”
Boff highlighted that the current rough sleeping funding for London has been at a similar level since 2018.
He continued: “Any amount of extra money to tackle rough sleeping is good.
“What I’m curious about is why the Mayor hasn’t committed more of his own resources to tackle rough sleeping.
“He’s got a £4bn affordable housing budget and I wonder why he can’t tap into that occasionally.”
Boff also asked why more homes were not being built in London to tackle the rise in rough sleeping.
He said: “There is a housing crisis in London. We need to build homes faster and the right kinds of homes as well.
“All too often we’re building one- and two-bedroom flats where we should be building the family sized homes.
“When the mayor got into office, he removed the family housing target of the previous mayor.
“I still think it was a very low target and I criticised the previous mayor for that.
“We’re now seeing a miniscule number of family sized homes being brought forward.”
He praised the success of the Everyone In campaign, which allowed rough sleepers to occupy hotel rooms and other accommodation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Boff said: “That was extraordinarily successful but unfortunately there was no difference to overall rough sleepers either side of the pandemic.
“It’s an expensive thing but in the long run it will be worth it.”
The homelessness charity Crisis urged the Westminster government to build more social housing.
Jasmine Basran, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Crisis, said: “We are pleased to see the Westminster government is providing extra funding to help support people forced to sleep rough into emergency accommodation this winter.
“With more and more people being pushed to the brink and exposed to life on the streets we know this funding will have been a lifeline for many.
“To meet the scale of the challenge we’re facing, it’s crucial the government’s forthcoming strategy to tackle homelessness puts building more social housing at its heart, alongside providing the support that people sleeping rough need to find and keep a home.
“It’s only investment in long-term measures like these that we can help people leave homelessness behind for good.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “The number of people sleeping on the streets in our capital and across the country is a shameful legacy of the last Government and will take time to turn around.
“The Mayor is doing everything in his power to help Londoners off the streets and into more secure accommodation.
“Just this week he delivered the biggest ever single investment of £10 million to tackle the capital’s rough sleeping crisis – more than any London Mayor – to expand the number of homelessness hubs across the capital.
“He has also quadrupled City Hall’s rough sleeping budget since 2016, supporting over 18,000 people off the streets to-date.
“Sadiq remains committed to his mission of ending rough sleeping in the capital by 2030 but is clear that every sector from society will need to step up and play its part.”
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