The key facts

  • On Armistice Day (11 November), the Prime Minister will send a letter to councils in England urging them to draw up plans to house homeless veterans
  • An additional £8.7 million will go to eight organisations, including SSAFA, Launchpad and Veteran Housing Scotland
  • In autumn 2025, 4,793 people were recorded sleeping rough in England — a record figure

A letter to councils and new funds for veterans

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that no one who has served in the country's armed forces should end up on the streets this Christmas. According to Downing Street, on 11 November, Armistice Day, he will personally send letters to councils across England urging them to draw up concrete plans to house veterans sleeping rough ahead of the festive season. This is reported by BBC News.

Funding and the principle of 'no one left on the street'

Burnham will ask local authorities to direct part of the already announced extra £874 million for tackling homelessness specifically towards housing for veterans, and will also invite them to work with local organisations and charities. Going forward, he said, national and local authorities should operate on a 'simple principle': 'no one who has served our country should ever be left to sleep on our streets.' 'People who were willing to risk their lives for the rest of us should never be left without a roof over their heads,' the BBC quotes the Prime Minister from a statement issued on Saturday. 'When they need help, the country owes them more than warm words. It owes them a bed every night, a real plan, and someone on their side from day one.'

Who will receive the £8.7 million

Downing Street said an additional £8.7 million will be allocated to eight organisations across the UK to help housing providers support veterans with complex needs, including health problems and addictions. Among the recipients named are Veteran Housing Scotland, Launchpad and SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity. The statement, timed to the upcoming Remembrance Day, is part of Burnham's broader plan to provide a bed for everyone currently sleeping on the streets this winter. Veterans who find themselves without housing, and those helping them, are invited to call the UK-wide helpline 0800 9520774 for direct connection to housing and specialist support.

The scale of the problem and criticism

According to official statistics cited by the BBC, in autumn 2025 a single-night count in England recorded 4,793 people sleeping rough— a record figure; their number has been rising since 2021. The government as a whole has committed to spending £4.4 billion on ending street homelessness. Burnham was previously criticised by the Conservatives for failing to end the phenomenon while Mayor of Greater Manchester. He countered that the Manchester programme attracted homeless people from neighbouring regions, adding: 'only if it is done everywhere at the same level can street homelessness truly be ended.' The BBC previously also reported on the doubling of funding for the plan to house homeless people by Christmas, and that charities welcomed his commitment to end street homelessness.

A suited man walks past a blue tent on a London street. In front of the tent is a sign that reads 'this is a British veterans home as this veteran has no place to call home'.Image source, Getty Images
A passer by touches the knee of a homeless person sitting on the floor on a street as they check in with them, both hooded on a rainy day in Cardiff in 2018.A person wrapped in a duvet is falling asleep on some stone steps in a park. They are wearing a padded dark blue jacket and a pink woolly hat.