Burnham raises more than £30k

Andy Burnham’s historic participation in the Great North Run has raised more than £30,000 to get rough sleepers off the streets of the North East, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Holland.

On Sunday, he became the first sitting Prime Minister to take part in the annual half-marathon from Newcastle to South Shields and did so in aid of Tyneside-based homelessness charity Changing Lives.

Mr Burnham had previously visited the charity’s crisis accommodation at Alex’s Place, in Newcastle’s West End, when he came last month to mark his pledge to get all rough sleepers a bed by this Christmas.

At time of writing, his Just Giving page for the Great North Run had raised just under £35,000 for Changing Lives, including Gift Aid, after launching on Sunday. The PM also contributed 15% of his monthly salary to the cause.

Changing Lives CEO Stephen Bell found out on Thursday evening that Mr Burnham would be taking part in the run and had to keep it a closely-guarded secret until Sunday.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We are delighted that he backed us – it has raised a lot of money and raised our profile. I think his commitment to ending homelessness is a genuine one and for the Prime Minister to do the Great North Run for us is a great source of pride for everyone in the organisation.

“I think it is tremendous for the region. We have a Prime Minister now who is talking up the North and the North East. For someone who was born and bred here, I think that has been long overdue.”

Ending rough sleeping was the first pledge Mr Burnham made after entering Downing Street, having previously made it his flagship programme during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.

Newcastle had a similar push under the Street Zero project, but that has now ended and rough sleeper numbers in the city have increased substantially.

The number of people sleeping rough in Newcastle increased from 14 seen bedded down in one night in November 2022 to 46 on an equivalent night in 2025. 

Across the North East region, the number of people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 in the North East stood at a record high of 162.

That represented a 31% jump on the previous year, at a time when areas like Yorkshire, London, and the East Midlands experienced a drop.

A funding uplift of £442 million to help roll out new accommodation and support services has been promised to help deliver the PM’s ambition.

The Government has awarded North East mayor Kim McGuinness an initial £3 million to hand out to local councils for the effort to offer everyone sleeping rough a route off the streets before Christmas.

That cash is expected to be the first phase of a mutli-year programme.

Mr Bell told the LDRS that he hoped that a three-year funding commitment would be forthcoming to ensure that sustainable, long-term support can be offered.

He also welcomed the recent news that Newcastle City Council is getting £141.4 million to build almost 1,000 new council homes.

Mr Bell said: “This is something we have not heard from a Prime Minister before, and I have been involved for over 30 years. So we are delighted that he chose to support Changing Lives and that he is talking about homelessness – because it is very visible that it is on the rise.

“We need the houses built and we need affordable rents. I understand the pressure that councils have been under, but council housing is council housing – it is for people how need it and it is fantastic that more people [in Newcastle] will be able to go back into council housing. 

“If there is an increase in population, there has to be an increase in housing and public services to keep up with that.”