PM promises to mount ‘Covid-style campaign’ to get homeless people off streets in winter
I’ve always thought you can tell something about a country by what it learns to walk past. And, somewhere along the way, we’ve got used to seeing people sleeping rough on our streets.
We see people bedded down in doorways and sat outside stations, carrying their lives in rucksacks and with sleeping bags on their backs. And I think most people have the same reaction: this isn’t right; it shouldn’t be happening here. But we’ve lived with it for so long that something that used to shock us now feels like part of the scenery.
Not at all, no. The chancellor is working really hard with the prime minister, with myself and other cabinet colleagues.
You’ll have seen the statement that the cabinet made I think now two weeks ago, where we were really clear on our intent to put devolution and community empowerment at the heart of this government.
So working with No 10 North around how we devolve and work with businesses, with local partners to drive that economic investment in local areas, because they know what their economy is like, they know what the challenges are that they face, but they feel powerless at times when the power is so centrally controlled in Whitehall.
And what we’re all saying, including the chancellor, is that we’re going to work with partners to ensure that they feel empowered in this process, so they can drive their local economies.
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