The issue of rough sleeping is one that was never going to be resolved easily and the Government’s task of meeting its own target was never going to be made any easier by the current cost of living crisis.

But the Kerslake Commission’s report, which says that the target to end rough sleeping by next year will not be met amid “chronic and unresolved” issues in the housing system should be a wake up call for the Government.

The failure will come as the country faces a housing and affordability crisis which is pushing more people onto the streets, and as pressure on public services results in a lack of early support to help prevention, the report warns.

However, the current cost of living crisis should not result in any politician treating the issue of homelessness as secondary. In fact, now is the time to double efforts on finding meaningful solutions.

A homeless person sleeping rough in a doorway. PIC: Yui Mok/PA Wire

And as the Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping rightly points out, progress can be made in tackling rough sleeping, as the pandemic showed.

The lack of capacity in the system needs to be addressed, there is clearly a shortage of social rented housing.

It isn’t just the visible part of homelessness that needs to be addressed. The numbers of households and children in temporary accommodation, another form of homelessness, in England are at record highs.

The family of the late Lord Bob Kerslake, the former head of the civil service and chief executive of Sheffield City Council, said he had been “saddened and dismayed by the rise of homelessness across our country”. Lord Kerslake, who made Yorkshire his home, embodied the virtue of public service. If the Government wants to honour his legacy then it would act upon this report.

The Government needs to act upon Kerslake Commission’s report on rough sleeping - The Yorkshire Post says