Burnham wants to give every rough sleeper an offer of help by the year’s end

Prime Minister and Makerfield MP Andy Burnham said he wanted to give “every single person” sleeping on the streets an offer of help by the end of this year.

It comes as the Budget is set to deliver a £432m boost to help ensure homeless people are off the streets by Christmas.

Speaking at a rough sleeping summit in Downing Street, Mr Burnham said: “Just think how it will feel if we get to the end of this year… and we know at a national level, that we did give every single person an offer of help this end of year.

“Please, we must turn this into something tangible for everybody.

“It doesn’t mean that everybody will be able to take up the offer and everybody will be able to have their life turned around.

“But the fact that we give them that offer will put enough hope in their heart that something will be coming and something will change as we go into the new year.”

Asked about the Conservatives’ criticism of his record on tackling homelessness while mayor of Greater Manchester, he said: “They are wrong about that because I had a 10-year drive called a bed every night, and if people look at the figures, it came right down.

“The issue was we were the only area that was offering a bed every night, so obviously people travelled to Greater Manchester.

“It’s clear to me that it only works if everywhere does it.

“If areas are just doing it in isolation, then it probably isn’t going going to work.”