Sir Sadiq Khan has no way of dealing with London’s homelessness crisis, the Conservatives have said after damning new rough sleeping figures came to light.
The Mayor’s “Rough Sleeping Action Plan” suffered a grilling this week – with experts warning his goal to end it by 2030 is “for the birds”.
At City Hall, Jillian Thursby, service director at homeless charity St Mungo’s, warned the target was “very ambitious”.
While Jess Turtle, the founder of the Museum of Homelessness, confirmed rough sleeping would not be cracked by 2030 with “how things are currently”.
Tory peer Lord Bailey has now told GB News there is no chance Sir Sadiq delivers.
“I don’t think he’s going to make the target at all,” he said. “I prefer the definition that we will make rough sleeping very rare and there will be no persistent rough sleeping.
“The idea that you’re going to end rough sleeping by 2030 simply is for the birds.”
Ms Turtle also blamed “far-right disinformation” for creating a “hostile environment” around homelessness and migrant homelessness.
Sir Sadiq Khan is on track to miss his housing targets, despite decreasing the percentage of affordable housing required for new developments
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But almost half of all rough sleepers in London are foreign nationals, according to figures released by the Centre for Social Justice last month.
Rough sleeping has hit record highs, with 4,793 recorded on a single night in autumn 2025, beating the previous eight-year peak.
Sophie Boobis of Homeless Link revealed the charity had seen a “big increase” in people coming straight out of the asylum system and onto the streets.
As well as people who had gained refugee status, Ms Boobis said migrants whose asylum applications were refused then went straight onto the streets rather than leaving the UK.
The ongoing Iran war will likely send a new surge of migrants to Britain’s shores.
But Lord Bailey claimed there was little that could be done to keep them off Britain’s streets.
“The system doesn’t really have a way of dealing with large numbers of people in that situation,” he said.
When confronted by ‘migrant tent camps’ in London last year, Sir Sadiq’s office defended migration as a ‘huge strength’ of the capital
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The Mayor has no way of meeting his 2030 goal, Lord Bailey warned
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There are some localised “specialist services”, but public funds could not do much to help due to government policy, Lord Bailey said.
When confronted by the arrival of “migrant tent camps” in west London last year, Sir Sadiq’s office defended migration as a “huge strength” of the capital.
A concerned Londoner had written to the Mayor after their son noticed the encampment while walking to school.
GB News visited the site in May, where host Patrick Christys was doused with water whilst reporting from the scene.
But instead of addressing specific complaints, the team hailed London’s “tradition of welcoming migrants and providing sanctuary to those who need it”.
Mrs Turtle said the Mayor’s office needed to focus on filling empty homes with rough sleepers to meet his 2030 target.
She said: “We need to make better use of empty dwelling management orders, and it would be great if the GLA could find ways to help local authorities be more bullish with those.”
An empty dwelling management order allows a council to manage an empty house without buying it outright.
Lord Bailey, the Tories’ City Hall housing spokesman, said Sir Sadiq had failed in his housebuilding targets, with the numbers of homes provided “shockingly low”.
Lord Bailey of Paddington has urged the mayor to build more housing to tackle rough sleeping
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Last month, GLA figures revealed that fewer than 8,000 homes had been built, some 10,000 shy of its goal.
The target for subsidised affordable housing in private developments was also revised in October, down from 35 per cent to 20 per cent.
Lord Bailey said: “The Mayor was warned that his ask for 50 per cent social housing was going to slow down housing delivery.
He added that housebuilding now stood at a “record slow”, despite the “record amount of money” invested into housing aims.
The mayor’s office has a budget of £44.8million to tackle rough sleeping in the capital.
The Government has also unveiled £50million of investment to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping nationally.