A message from Jimmy’s CEO Natasha Davies.
As someone who clearly cares about people experiencing homelessness I wanted to get in touch to share some of the news following yesterday’s budget just in case you haven’t had a chance to digest it all.
Something really positive to start with, the government announced it will scrap the pernicious and outdated, 200 year old law that makes rough sleeping a criminal offence in England and Wales. The Vagrancy Act 1824 will be axed by Spring 2026. The intention is for the act to be scrapped via the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently before parliament. Government amendments to the bill will focus on “real crime and not rough sleeping”, with no replacement of previous legislation that criminalised people for simply sleeping rough.
Additionally, in the Spending Review, more financial support was announced to tackle homelessness and support those who are experiencing it. Something we are obviously very much in support of!
New targeted measures will ensure the police have the powers they need. This will include a new offence of facilitating begging for gain. This offence makes it unlawful for anyone to organise others to beg, such as driving people to places for them to beg. It will allow the police to crack down on the organised-crime gangs that exploit vulnerable people to obtain cash for illicit activity. Many of Jimmy’s staff have recently received Modern Day Slavery training so, even more so than before (if that was possible!), have an understanding of the importance of focusses like this and again, fully support it!
Overall, the latest Spending Review has been largely welcomed by our sector with a 10-year rent settlement and a £39bn Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) announced. However, detail is missing in terms of how the fund will be split between social housing and so called “affordable housing”, which is becoming unaffordable for the majority so we will continue to have a keen eye on that as more information becomes available.
All that said, you know that these changes can take a long time to show actual real life outcomes which means our work with people experiencing homelessness in Cambridge is as important today as it has been for the last 30 years we have been providing support.
We hugely value your support of our work helping people from street floor to their own front door today and every day.