Ongoing

  1. ElectionsHot
  2. US mid-termsHeating up
  3. AICooling
NewsbriefSouth Africa, briefly.
JoburgJHB29°69%
CTCT21°90%
PretoriaPTA33°75%
DurbanDBN30°20°

UK government adds £432 million to end rough sleeping

Published

Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the money on Sunday, bringing total investment to £874 million. The government wants everyone sleeping rough to be offered a route off the street before Christmas. It will confirm the funding in Wednesday's Budget.

The funding extends support beyond March 2027. One source said it runs to the end of this Parliament, which is due in 2029. The first programme had £442 million in backing.

Burnham will host the first Rough Sleeping Summit at Downing Street. Private firms, charities and local leaders will attend. The National Housing Federation will work with housing associations to find at least 2,000 potential homes and bedspaces.

Chancellor John Healey said: "No one should ever have to sleep rough". Housing Secretary Angela Rayner called the goal "a big ambition". England had 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025.

Shadow housing secretary Katie Lam criticised the plan. She said Burnham is throwing another £432 million at a problem he failed to solve in Greater Manchester.

Key facts

Who
Andy Burnham (UK Prime Minister); John Healey (chancellor); Burnham (Prime Minister); Katie Lam (Shadow housing secretary)
What
Andy Burnham is to announce a £432mn plan to tackle rough sleeping, as chancellor John Healey prepares a fiscal statement aimed at reassuring markets while funding Labour's social objectives. Big gilt investors are hoping for reassurance and warning against tweaking key fiscal rules.
When
26 October 2026
Where
United Kingdom, Downing Street, England
Status
Reported

Related stories

Elections Hot

What you need to know

Voting in the 2026 Local Government Elections is under way at 23,696 stations, and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reported a smooth start on 4 November. Stations opened at 7am and close at 9pm, and by 10am preliminary figures showed 3,523,691 voters had cast ballots.

There were problems: unused ballot papers were stolen from Mnyameni Secondary School near Durban, police opened a case, and the IEC relieved the station staff of duty. Some voters in Tshwane said they were turned away for wearing party shirts, but the IEC denied this and said only mayoral candidates' entourages were barred.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe told members not to query the results or discredit the IEC, while the IEC said false online claims show routine procedures as fraud.

  1. BOSA's Solomons flags one-ballot problem at Cape Town voting stations
  2. Mashatile urges new councillors to put voters first
  3. IEC dismisses MK Party worry about dead people on voters' roll

See every update

US mid-terms Heating up

What you need to know

Democrats won back both the US House and Senate in the midterm elections held on 3 November, according to media projections. Exit polls showed voters were angry about high prices and the direction of the country, and rebuked President Donald Trump.

Before the vote, US forces struck targets on Qeshm Island in Iran, while Republicans struggled to defend the war against Iran on the campaign trail. Iranian officials said US voters rejected the war, and Tehran stayed on high alert for possible new US strikes.

Markets reacted, with the dollar hitting a one-month low and the rand firming to around R16.55, as analysts pointed to fears of gridlock in Washington.

  1. Iran welcomes Democratic wins in US midterm elections
  2. Democrats win US Congress in midterm vote, projections show
  3. Ramaphosa wants US trade deal after AGOA suspension

See every update

AI Cooling

What you need to know

Nvidia has told its cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic said it has committed to spend close to $900bn on AI infrastructure, and that its computing costs are rising faster than its revenues.

Elsewhere, reports from unnamed sources say OpenAI's latest funding round is falling short of expectations, and a judge let the NAACP pollution case against xAI proceed. In South Africa, the VAST AI investment scheme went offline on 30 October after withdrawals marked approved did not arrive, according to a news investigation.

  1. Accenture faces accusations over AI report with false citations
  2. CrowdStrike to buy two AI security startups
  3. Google lets schools turn off AI tools but limits Search

See every update