The individual beggars are often the victims of modern slavery. They account for their monies to their gang masters.
There needs to be the ability to evict when that is justified. Undue delay and obstruction and the rental market will shrink.
The New Homes Bonus must not be eroded, and the constraints on small urban local authorities should be recognised.
This innovative solution is preferable to bed and breakfast accommodation. Residents who live in a pod can live more independently, cooking their own food.
They are chosen not from a factional or ideological standpoint, but from what I see while doing the job of Mayor.
The problem is Parliament putting new legal obligations on local authorities, for worthy causes, but then leaving the cost to fall on Council Taxpayers.
The challenge is complex. New factors such as poor EU migrants and increasing drug use are driving it.
The founder of The Big Issue expresses his aversion to liberalism, and his disappointment with the middle class.
Local authorities are still waiting until people are actually homeless before offering assistance. This is expensive and has an unnecessary impact on vulnerable people.
Ultimately, we are working to ‘design out’ homelessness entirely, by helping at-risk people before they get to a crisis point.
But it could take the ruling out of all other options before we get there. And if MPs ends up reaching a consensus view, then the Government will have to adopt it.
Insisting that our needs are met by the government reduces neigbours to numbers and diminishes our scope for good citizenship.
We should look to Asia for a practical and cost-effective way to give rough sleepers a permanent address and bed for the night.
Government should be passionate about self-reliance, but we must also recognise the transformative power of an enabling state.