UK government defends proposals to restrict homeless tents
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden told BBC Sunday that government was looking at legislation aimed at preventing “tent cities”
LONDON: Britain’s government on Sunday defended proposed legislation that aims to restrict charities from providing homeless people with tents, after facing fierce criticism.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of people sleeping on the streets with UK mortgage rates and rents soaring since decades-high inflation fuelled the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told the BBC on Sunday that the government was looking at legislation aimed at preventing “tent cities”.
“We shouldn’t allow these kind of tent cities and other things to spring up and that’s why we are looking at the kind of legislation that might be necessary to address that,” he said.
Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman sparked outrage from opposition politicians and homeless charities after she said on Saturday that she wants to put a stop to the “nuisance and distress” caused by homeless people pitching tents on public streets.
“We cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Braverman made the comments as she shared an article from the Financial Times about proposals to fine charities for handing out tents, if they are deemed to have caused a nuisance.
