Britain has become very good at talking about compassion. We’re much less good at actually delivering it. Which is why, whenever you visit parliament, you’ll probably find people sleeping on the pavement next to a politician announcing a new policy to end homelessness.

Andy Burnham is right to make ending rough sleeping one of his first ambitions as UK prime minister. It is a national disgrace. It should be a priority. But there is one awkward problem: he’s promised this before.

As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham pledged to end rough sleeping there. He didn’t. Rough sleeping, begging and public drug use remain part of everyday life in central Manchester. Spend half an hour around Piccadilly Gardens and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Despite his evident failure there, he’s now making the same promise to the whole nation. But why should Britain believe him this time?

His failure to end rough sleeping in Manchester – where he had nine years to do something about it – doesn’t mean he should give up. Failure is okay. But it does mean he needs to explain why he’ll succeed nationally when he couldn’t locally.

Rough sleeping can be ended. Not every individual case – life’s more complicated than that. But the long-term encampments, occupied shop doorways and places the public walks past every day can be cleaned up. Those don’t have to exist.

What you need isn’t another strategy. You need beds, trained workers and strict rules. You also need, heaven forbid, politicians prepared to make difficult decisions.

First, we should create around 6,000 safe individual sleeping pods. Very basic modular units with a bed, toilet, sink, window, light and a charging point. That’s enough to get someone off the street tonight.

Communal hostels don’t work for everybody. Some people fear violence or theft. Others have addictions or behavioural problems that make shared accommodation impossible. A private room with a lock on the door can make all the difference.

Second, every area with a serious problem needs properly funded outreach teams. Not more awareness campaigns. Not another glossy strategy document. We need trained people who get to know who’s sleeping rough, where they are and what help they need. Those staff can connect people with housing, addiction services, mental-health support, councils and the police.

A bed doesn’t fix a broken life. But it is the vital first step to a better life.

Now comes the bit politicians hate. Once suitable accommodation has genuinely been offered, people cannot be allowed to carry on sleeping in shop doorways, stations and public spaces. Not only should they be taken to the accommodation that’s available – there should be consequences for choosing to sleep rough in public places.

Some people will call that criminalising poverty. It isn’t. Leaving somebody to deteriorate in public isn’t kind or compassionate. It’s cowardly.

As mayor of Middlesbrough, I saw these things close up. Beds were available, yet some people stayed outside because they refused hostel rules, often around drugs or alcohol. Sometimes they just want to be on their own.

We never eliminated rough sleeping altogether. Nobody does. But we kept it under control.

Beyond the short-term pods, we need basic but decent modular homes on a mass scale, getting individuals and families out of the horrendous temporary hostels councils use and fund.

But none of this works unless Britain builds far more homes. Right now, we have more households than we have available homes. Until we build in big numbers, there will always be large-scale homelessness.

We also need to stop pretending every new housing development is a local outrage. Everybody in Britain agrees that we need more homes. They just don’t want them built nearby. Mayors need the powers and targets that hold them accountable – and to have their funding clipped if they fail to deliver.

Burnham should publish a funded timetable, measurable targets and tell us exactly where these emergency spaces will come from, who’ll staff them and what happens when suitable help is repeatedly refused.

Britain doesn’t need another promise on rough sleeping. It needs beds and then proper homes. And it needs rules, too. Andy Burnham has made this promise before – he needs to prove how this time will be different from the last.

Andy Preston was mayor of Middlesbrough from 2019 until 2023.