Ministers recently announced they would repeal the outdated Vagrancy Act, introduced in 1824 in the Georgian era.
Use of the law has significantly decreased in line with modern attitudes, but it remains enforceable in England and Wales.
Cllr Sarah Williams, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, said:
I want to congratulate the government on making this historic and much overdue change. Overcoming homelessness must be about support, not prosecution.
We know that person-centred interventions are by far the best way of getting people off the streets and into a stable home. That’s how here in Haringey we’ve cut rough sleeping by a third in the last three years.
We are also on track to deliver 3,000 new council homes by 2031, doing what we can to end the homelessness crisis in London.
We are committed to supporting residents who are affected by homelessness and ensure they are treated with dignity. While there is still much more work to do, we look forward to continuing our collaborative work with partners.
The council’s dedicated rough sleeping team has been instrumental in providing essential services, from the award-winning homelessness centre at Mulberry Junction to Osborne Grove, which offers temporary accommodation for 12 weeks and all the services people need are under one roof, including a women-only crash pad.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has boosted funding for homelessness services by an extra £233 million this financial year, bringing total investment for 2025-26 to nearly £1 billion.
This support aims to prevent more families from entering temporary accommodation and tackle rough sleeping head-on.
Government amendments to the Home Office’s Crime and Policing Bill will focus on real crime and not rough sleeping, with no replacement of previous legislation that criminalised people for simply sleeping rough.
The new government legislation will target organised begging by gangs and trespassing—protecting communities without penalising vulnerable people.
