Vagrancy Act Repealed  

After more than 200 years, the Vagrancy Act – a law that made it a criminal offence to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales – is finally set to be scrapped for good.

The Labour government has confirmed that the Act will be fully repealed in 2026, drawing a line under nearly two centuries of criminalising poverty. 

Originally introduced in 1824, the Act gave police the power to fine or arrest people for sleeping on the streets. It’s long been outdated and harmful, punishing vulnerable people simply for being homeless, and driving them further away from support and safety. 

In place of the Vagrancy Act, the government has said that no new laws will be introduced that criminalise rough sleeping. Instead, the focus will be on measures that help the most vulnerable, without punishing them for being destitute. This includes increased financial support for people facing homelessness, and new legislation aimed at tackling organised crime linked to exploitative begging practices, rather than targeting individual people on the street. 

The Vagrancy Act did nothing to tackle the root causes – it only deepened the hardship faced by those already living on the margins.

In parallel with the legal changes, the government has pledged an additional £233m for homelessness services in 2025–26, bringing total spending on homelessness to £1 billion. A new national homelessness strategy is also in the works, led by the Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner. 

Many charities and organisations that work with people experiencing homelessness, including Big Issue North,  welcome this news: “Being poor, vulnerable or without a home should never have been treated as a crime,” says Roli Barker, Executive Director for Big Issue North. “From years of working alongside people experiencing homelessness, we know that the Vagrancy Act did nothing to tackle the root causes – it only deepened the hardship faced by those already living on the margins. Scrapping it won’t end homelessness overnight, but it needs to mark an important shift: away from blaming individuals, and towards recognising the broken systems that drive people onto the streets in the first place.” 

Last year, Shelter revealed that at least 354,000 people in England were homeless, including more than 161,500 children. The true figure is likely even higher, as many forms of homelessness, such as sofa-surfing, often go unrecorded. Manchester remains one of the hardest-hit regions, with an estimated one in every 61 people currently without housing or accommodation.