The Liberal Democrats are renewing calls for the Vagrancy Act to be scrapped, as new official statistics reveal a rise in the number of deaths of homeless people in 2019.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics, published today, show that there were an estimated 778 deaths in 2019, an increase of 7.2% since 2018.
The highest numbers of deaths were in London (144) and the North West (126).
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who has tabled a Bill to repeal the Vagrancy Act, said: “Every one of these deaths is heart-breaking. The fact that so many people are dying on our streets is the most shameful example of the failure of our housing and welfare systems.
“The Conservative Government doesn’t seem to care. For too long, they have been sitting on their hands, failing to protect the most vulnerable people in society.
“People are dying, and we need a more compassionate approach to ending this homelessness crisis. That starts with repealing the Vagrancy Act – a nasty, Dickensian law that criminalises people just for sleeping rough.
“The ‘Everyone In’ programme to house rough sleepers during the first wave of Covid showed what we can achieve with enough political will. We must build on that success to end rough sleeping for good and create a more caring society as we emerge from this pandemic.”