Did Boris Johnson mislead the public over plans to “end rough sleeping”?

In 2008 Boris Johnson made a bold pledge to end rough sleeping in London by the end of 2012. It was a pledge he reiterated in his manifesto last year just seven months before his self-imposed deadline. This was despite official figures showing that the number of people sleeping rough on London’s streets has increased every year since he became mayor.

His 2012 manifesto stated: “I have secured investment and launched a range of initiatives to ensure that, by the end of 2012, no one should be living on the street”. Given that he was fully aware of the huge growth in the number of people sleeping rough under his mayoralty, it seems odd that he would reiterate his pledge so forcefully with just months to go until his deadline. It was of course a pledge he failed to keep, and the latest figures show that nearly 6,500 people slept rough on the streets of the capital in the last year.

Over the past six months I have asked the mayor on no less than five occasions when he was informed by his staff that he would not be able to keep his pledge. It is a question that he has consistently evaded, simply stated that he was “kept informed of developments”. This is despite the fact that his Deputy Mayor for Housing Rick Blakeway told me: “I think the target was never meant to finish in 2012.” By repeatedly failing to provide a clear answer to this question, the Mayor has given credence to the view that he was aware he would not achieve this pledge even when he told Londoners he would during the last election.

Today I wrote to the Mayor asking him to clarify whether he misled Londoners during the election. If he does not provide a clear answer, Londoners will draw their own conclusions about whether he knowingly misled them in his manifesto.