Inside the homeless capital of the UK, where 1 in 18 have no housing

Walking the streets of Newham, east London, it is not immediately apparent that it has the highest homelessness rate in the country. But this is because most of the people without a home in Newham are not on the streets. They are stuck in limbo in hotels or bed and breakfasts, sometimes for years, while they await a permanent residence. On Monday, Andy Burnham’s Government pledged a further £432m to end rough sleeping, taking the total he has promised to spend to £874m.

He also recommitted to offering every rough sleeper a route off the streets by Christmas. But experts say Newham shows why the UK’s homelessness crisis goes far beyond the streets. And while new funding will help, it will take more than cash to solve the problem. The Government’s real homeless crisis An estimated 4,793 people were sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 in England, latest official data shows – 27 per cent of those were in London.

Burnham said he wanted to give “every single person” sleeping on the streets an offer of help by the end of this year. In Newham, the council and local charities regularly see about 30 people sleeping rough on any one night. There are about 60 rough sleepers known to the council in the area, but there are 8,250 people registered homeless. The borough has far more people in temporary accommodation than sleeping rough – and these are mostly families. (Photo: Teri Pengilley) Homelessness charity Shelter puts the figure even higher, at one in 18 people in the borough.

Most of these are people housed by the council in shared accommodation such as hostels or bed and breakfasts, while they wait for a flat or house to become available. This was down to “rocketing rents and a dire lack of social rent homes” in London that have “left thousands of families stuck homeless in temporary accommodation or stranded for years on waiting lists”, said Mairi MacRae, acting chief executive of Shelter. “It’s absolutely right that the Government has boosted funding to tackle rough sleeping and build more social homes.

But if it is serious about ending homelessness in all its forms, it must go even further.” According to data from homelessness charity Crisis, only 0.4 per cent of properties listed for private rent in Newham across the last year were affordable for someone who receives local housing allowance (LHA). LHA in Newham is currently set at £561.33 for a single person, and up to a maximum of £1,950 for a four-bed property. ‘Not everyone can afford it’ Sandip Kumar, 39, works as a debt collector and rents privately in Newham.

He thinks rent is affordable as long as you are earning, but is not surprised that homelessness is so high in the area. Sandip Kumar, 39, is not surprised that many people can’t afford to pay private rents in Newham (Photo: Teri Pengilley) “Not everyone can afford the rent,” he said. “There are a lot of people living here and who want to live here. I don’t think there are enough houses.” John Gray, deputy mayor of Newham Council and cabinet member for housing, said the extra funding and “a bit of pressure and a target” will help tackle rough sleeping.

But he adds: “We have to be really honest… that we’re not going to be able to rehouse the greatest proportion of people in Newham or in London.” Families are often offered housing outside of London in Essex, Kent and Cambridgeshire, but Gray says many people prefer to wait to be housed in Newham, meaning they can stay on waiting lists for years. The families stuck in hostels Kat Klimova, 35, lived with her family in a hostel in Ilford and then further away in Romford before becoming one of the lucky few to secure council housing in Newham.

“That was very hard,” she says of the hostel. “There were two rooms for all [four] of us. Our benefits [universal credit] just covered it.” Kat Klimova, 34, has lived in Newham for more than 20 years and is finally in a council home she loves (Photo: Teri Pengilley) After her parents passed away, she now lives in a council flat with her sister on Milton Avenue, near East Ham station. “We have the keys, it’s ours,” she said. “Someone from the council comes once a month to make sure it’s clean, everything is working.

We pay the council around £1,000 a month for the two of us, bills included.” She is pleased that the Government is pledging money to end rough sleeping, though she doesn’t see many people on the streets in the area. “This is something that matters for people’s quality of life, it wouldn’t be responsible for the Government not to look after them,” she said. ‘A house is just the first step’ Christina George Isaac, CEO of Just Homes, a housing charity in Newham which houses more than 80 people who have no recourse to public funds, welcomed the funding to tackle rough sleeping.

But she said: “Giving someone a house is the first step, but this has to be coupled with skills of how to maintain it… If not you’re going to end up wasting money.” Many of the rough sleepers the charity supports are migrants, often international students who couldn’t find work after their degrees. “You have to have a strategy for getting someone into a job and out of the system,” she said. Isaac thinks working with local small businesses, giving them tax relief to hire homeless people, would make a big difference.

Gray also does not think the funding will be enough to get everyone off the streets in Newham. Some rough sleepers he has encountered say they “prefer to be on the streets”, he said. And although there are no details about how the funding will be allocated as yet, it is likely the council won’t be allowed to use it to house those who aren’t entitled to claim public funds, such as people with no settled migration status. ‘Make rent more affordable’ Mary Irabor, 80, who has lived in Newham for 50 years also said the Government must do more to help “families and people with children who can’t go out to work, and the elderly” afford housing.

“It’s very expensive to buy now,” she said. “Even to afford rent is very difficult, with council tax and bills on top of that. People who rent out are greedy. I think the rents should be lower to take into consideration the bills as well.” Mary Irabor, 80, owns her house in Newham, but her son had to leave London to buy his first home (Photo: Teri Pengilley) Gray says Newham Council, along with many other local authorities, has asked ministers to raise LHA to help make private renting more affordable, meaning fewer will be waiting four council properties.

“[With LHA so far behind private rents] you’re setting people up to fail,” Gray said. “If the Government did raise [the] local housing allowance, to make up for the cuts or the freezes of the past, that would make our job a lot easier.” Matt Downie, chief executive at Crisis, which is also calling for LHA to be increased, added: “Ending homelessness is not a pipe dream. Preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place, by uprating housing benefit to cover the cheapest third of rents, is key.”

The Prime Minister’s Office announced the extra £432m in funding in a press release on Monday, which they said was part of their aim “to stop accepting rough sleeping as a fact of life and unite the country behind a mission to end it”.