Westminster Council drops plans to criminalise soup runs

A Christian housing group has welcomed the announcement from Westminster Council that it is abandoning plans to ban soup runs.

The council had been pursuing the introduction of a new bylaw that would have made it a criminal offence to feed homeless people on the street.

The bylaw would also have criminalised sleeping on the street or depositing bedding in parts of central London.

The council’s U-turn follows strong criticism from Housing Justice, Streetlytes and other local homeless service providers.

Housing Justice, which runs the London Soup Run Forum, said the proposals represented an “attack upon common sense and decency, and would not have solved the growing crisis of homelessness on our streets”.

While the organisation welcomed the decision to abandon the proposed bylaw, it voiced concerns over the council’s continued insistence that there is no need for people to access food on the streets of central London.

Housing Justice appealed to Westminster Council to help find more indoor venues for soup run groups, saying they were forced to provide food outside because of a lack of available indoor venues in central London.

“Provision of services is much needed at this time as the numbers of rough sleepers are rising,” the organisation said.

“However Housing Justice and its members are committed to working together with Westminster and all local authorities, homelessness agencies and churches to help develop more indoor venues and to create a better and more effective safety net.

“Our hope is to see more services open in the evenings and weekends, in all parts of London, to meet the needs of the growing numbers of street homeless people.”