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A bill proposed by the government specifically provides for the introduction of fines for associations that help the homeless if they provide tents.
Published on May 11, 2023 1:40 p.m. Updated on May 11, 2023 2:14 p.m
Reading time: 1 min
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman during a Conservative party conference in Manchester, United Kingdom, on October 3, 2023. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
The British government on Sunday November 5 defended its plan to target homeless people sleeping in tents on the streets after Home Secretary Suella Braverman made controversial comments describing the phenomenon as a “fad”. According to the Financial Times, the project specifically envisages fines for associations that help the homeless if they provide tents.
Price increases in the UK for more than a year have led to a rise in poverty and the number of homeless people, particularly as the country faces a severe housing crisis. “We cannot allow our streets to be overrun by rows of tents housing people, many from abroad, whose lifestyle involves sleeping on the streets,” she wrote on X on Saturday.
The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are truly homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of whom come from abroad and choose life on the streets as a lifestyle. 1/4 https://t.co/fT1Ou5kD5Q
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) November 4, 2023
“It is the government’s responsibility to be able to say that we should not allow tent cities to develop when the people affected are in a safer place,” Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said on the BBC. He confirmed that the Conservative government intended to legislate on the matter, as the Home Secretary had indicated the previous day. The Labor mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, accused the government of a “lack of compassion” with its plan.
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