The Govt is consulting on new powers to control begging as the old ones all went with the repeal of the 1824 Vagrancy Act.
Crisis, the national homelessness charity is very concerned: Petition
Ultimately, some legal powers may be need to control some incidents of very anti-social behaviour associated with begging. As I have argued in these blogs, misconceptions about begging affect understanding of homnelessness – they are not the same.
But these powers, raised like this without context or any attention to the wider determinants of rapidly rising poverty, are the wrong end of the stick. Any new pwers need to be contextualised in a strategic, caring reponse that has other elements. Read my blog on this
