Eastbourne Borough Council has won more than £1.5m over three years for work on rough sleeping. Last autumn's official count found 29 people on the streets.

Eastbourne Borough Council has been awarded more than £1.5 million over the next three years to prevent and reduce rough sleeping in the town.

The council announced the award on 27 August. It says the money will support a rough sleeping plan being developed with partners, voluntary and faith organisations, and people who have slept rough themselves.

The early priorities, in the council’s own words, are:

  • more supported accommodation for people sleeping rough
  • stronger joint working between the agencies that support people with multiple and complex needs

The homelessness team is in discussions with existing providers, and with neighbouring councils across East Sussex, about how to spend it.

Councillor Peter Diplock, Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness, said the multi-year funding “gives us the stability to expand supported accommodation and strengthen the coordinated work already happening across Eastbourne”.

What the official count shows

Every autumn, councils record how many people are sleeping rough on a single night, and the government publishes the results for every district. The latest snapshot, taken in autumn 2025 and published in February, found 29 people sleeping rough in Eastbourne. That was up from 26 the year before, though below the 37 of autumn 2023.

Column chart of Eastbourne's annual autumn rough sleeping snapshot from 2010 to 2025. The figure was as low as 3 in 2011, peaked at 41 in 2017, and in the three most recent years was 37 in 2023, 26 in 2024 and 29 in 2025
Eastbourne's autumn snapshot over sixteen years. The method alternates between street counts and estimates, so year-to-year comparisons need care.

Two things stand out in the figures:

  • Eastbourne’s rate, 27.8 people per 100,000 residents, is more than three times the England rate of 8.2. Seaside towns dominate the high end of that table.
  • England’s total, 4,793 people, was the highest since the snapshot began in 2010, passing the previous peak of 4,751 in 2017. Eastbourne’s own peak was 41 that same year, against a low of 3 in 2011.

One caveat on the borough’s numbers: councils can either count people found on the night or compile an estimate with local agencies, and Eastbourne has switched between the two methods over the years. The single-night figure also misses people in hostels, sofa surfing or in temporary accommodation.

Where the money comes from

The council did not name the government fund in its announcement, beyond saying the award responds to the government’s national rough sleeping plan. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its Rough Sleeping Programme guidance on 19 August. That programme is worth £442 million over the same three years, 2026-27 to 2028-29, split between immediate “routes off the street” provision and longer-term settled accommodation, with each council’s share set by a national formula.

What it means for you

If you are worried about someone you have seen sleeping rough, you can send an alert through StreetLink, which passes the location to local outreach teams. The council’s own help for people sleeping rough page sets out what support is available and how to reach the housing team, and anyone at immediate risk of losing their home should contact the council as early as possible, because it has stronger legal duties before someone reaches the street.

The practical test of the new money will be visible: whether the supported accommodation the council says it will expand actually opens, and whether next autumn’s snapshot, taken between October and November 2026, moves. We will report the figure when it is published.

Sources