Punching Down is Not a Policy by Lawson Akhigbe

As of June 29, 2026, the 1824 Vagrancy Act has officially been repealed by the Labour government led by Kier Starmer. For over two centuries, this archaic law did something truly remarkable in its cruelty: it made the catastrophic misfortune of having nowhere to live a literal crime.  

Under the Act, sleeping in a doorway or asking for spare change could land a person a £1,000 fine, an ironic penalty for someone without a penny to piss on or a stint of hard labor.

Originally passed to clear the streets of destitute veterans returning from the Napoleonic Wars, the law survived into the 21st century as a lazy tool to “move people on” rather than actually help them.  

But the current Labour government’s decision to finally axe the law, couple it with a £3.6 billion National Plan to End Homelessness, and completely decriminalize rough sleeping and begging marks a profound philosophical shift.

For decades, the standard political response to visible poverty has been a masterclass in missing the point. We have historically treated systemic social failures as individual moral failings. If the housing market collapses, if the mental health system fragments, or if domestic abuse drives a woman onto the street, the traditional playbook wasn’t to fix the safety net, it was to send in the police to sweep the symptoms under the rug and blame some targeted groups like migrants or other unfavoured people.

Criminalization didn’t solve homelessness; it just made it invisible. It pushed vulnerable people into the shadows, making them harder for outreach workers to find and ensure their safety. Worse, giving someone a criminal record for the “crime” of being poor acts as a permanent barrier to securing employment or a tenancy later on. It was a self-perpetuating cycle of state-sanctioned misery.

Turning Punishment into Prevention

The repeal of the Vagrancy Act isn’t just about deleting a cruel law from the books; it is about rewriting how a state interacts with its citizens at their absolute lowest point.

Instead of deploying handcuffs, the new strategy is deploying resources:

• The Supported Housing Boost: A targeted £159 million grant aimed at moving thousands of rough sleepers straight off the concrete and into stable, secure accommodation.
• Institutional Off-Ramps: For the first time, clear targets are being set to ensure people aren’t discharged directly onto the streets from hospitals or prison cells, traditionally the two largest conveyor belts into homelessness.
• Frontline Funding: Millions in backing for the voluntary and community faith groups who actually do the heavy lifting on the ground.

Old Approach: Crisis ➔ Criminal Record ➔ Deeper Isolation New Approach: Crisis ➔ Supported Housing ➔ Rehabilitation

“Homeless people are not criminals, they are people who need help.”
Steve Reed, Housing Secretary

A Society, Not a Colosseum

What makes this moment important isn’t just the policy mechanics; it’s the underlying message it sends about governance.

A healthy government responds to deep-seated social problems by analyzing root causes, investing in human infrastructure, and offering a ladder out of the abyss. It does not look for easy scapegoats, punch down on the defenseless, or divide society into the “worthy” and the “unwanted” just to score cheap political points.

Decriminalizing poverty is a baseline requirement for a civilized nation. By trading the warden’s stick for the social worker’s support framework, we are finally realizing that you cannot bully or fine someone out of destitution. True strength in governance isn’t measured by how many vulnerable people you can clear off a street corner; it’s measured by how few people are forced to sleep there in the first place.