Boris Johnson dropped in to a homeless shelter just half a mile from his Downing Street home today as he continued to refuse to visit flood-ravaged areas of Britain.
The Prime Minister found time to visit Connection at St Martins in the Fields in London to promote his new plans to tackle the scourge of rough sleeping.
But it is now 12 days since the west, Midlands and north of England, and Wales, were first badly hit by floods, overwhelming defences and forcing people from their homes.
Downing Street and ministers continue to resist pressure for Mr Johnson to visit those affected, while Jeremy Corbyn – who has been to Pontypridd – has accused him of being a ‘part-time Prime Minister’.
Speaking today at the central London shelter, Mr Johnson instead focused on how the ‘massive issue’ of flooding ‘presents an opportunity’ for job creation.
He said: ‘There’s a massive issue about flood defences, and we have put £2.6 billion in and we will be investing another £4 billion.
The Prime Minister found time to visit Connection at St Martins in the Fields church in London to promote his new plans to tackle the scourge of rough sleeping
This morning Mr Johnson announced £236million in additional funding to provide ‘move on’ accommodation for up to 6,000 rough sleepers
Downing Street and ministers continue to resist pressure for Mr Johnson to visit those affected by flooding in places like Worcester (pictured today)
He has been criticised for failing to visit flood-hit zones in Worcestershire and Shropshire (Ironbridge pictured today), where residents have been forced to evacuate their homes
‘This is something that is absolutely critical for our country to tackle.
‘I think it also presents an opportunity, because in the whole business of green technology flood defences, planting trees, all the ways in which we are going to insulate our country against flooding, there are opportunities for job creation as well.’
This morning Mr Johnson announced £236million in additional funding to provide ‘move on’ accommodation for up to 6,000 rough sleepers.
He has also appointed former homelessness tsar Dame Louise Casey to carry out a review into the causes of the problem.
Official figures show the number of people sleeping rough on the streets of England has fallen for a second year in a row.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government estimated that 4,266 people were sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2019.
The figure is down 411 on the previous year – a drop of 9 per cent – and down 10 per cent on the peak of 2017.
However the total is still 2,498 higher than when the figures were first introduced in 2010 – an increase of 141 per cent.
The South West was the only region where there was a notable increase, with 490 people sleeping rough – a rise of 32, or 7%.
The biggest fall was in the West Midlands where there were 319 – down 101 on 2018, a drop of 24%.
Homelessness charity St Mungo’s said the figures are ‘simply not good enough’ and called on the Government to invest an extra £1 billion a year in services for the homeless.
Official figures show the number of people sleeping rough on the streets of England has fallen for a second year in a row
No flooding here: Speaking at The Connection at St Martin’s in central London, the PM (bottom) instead focused on how the ‘massive issue … presents an opportunity’ for jobs
Labour’s shadow housing secretary John Healey said the official estimates did not show the true scale of the problems.
He said that even by its own estimates, the Government was set to break its pledge to end rough sleeping by the end of the Parliament which, at the current rate of progress, would not be met until 2037.
‘Any apparent fall in street sleeping is welcome, but everyone knows these misleading statistics are an unreliable undercount of the true scale of the problem,’ he said.
‘Ministers won’t fix the crisis of rough sleeping until they deal with the root causes of the problem, which means facing up to the impact of deep cuts to housing, social security and homelessness services since 2010.’