THE government faces rising pressure to offer rough sleepers accommodation during the second coronavirus lockdown as it did during the first.

Labour’s shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire has written to her Tory counterpart Robert Jenrick calling on him to restart the Everyone In initiative, which began in March.

Under the scheme, councils and charities helped 15,000 rough sleepers into emergency housing during the first national lockdown.

Her letter also calls for evictions and repossessions to be banned again to help prevent more people from becoming homeless.

Ms Debbonaire’s letter to the government came the day after charities made a similar appeal to the government in response to its announcement of the second lockdown, which begins tomorrow and is due to last for one month.

She said that the scheme could help save many hundreds of rough sleepers from a “cold, dangerous winter.”

According to a study published in medical journal the Lancet in September, 266 deaths were avoided during the first wave of the pandemic in England thanks to the scheme.

Last month, 18 health and homelessness organisations, including the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners, Crisis and St Mungo’s warned that more lives will be at risk from coronavirus and the cold without urgent government action.

Ms Debbonaire also said that the accommodation must be self-contained, rather than communal night shelters, to help prevent Covid-19 being passed on.

She added that the “no recourse to public funds” rule should be suspended so that everyone on the streets can be helped.

Seyi Obakin, chief executive of youth homelessness charity Centrepoint, said that it is “vital” that the scheme is revived with sufficient funds available to avoid a spike in Covid-19 cases among people living on the streets.

Crisis chief executive Jon Sparkes said: “We need government to provide the same level of protection to people who are sleeping rough on our streets as we saw back in March.”

Shelter assistant director of research Chris Wood insisted that “this time,” there must be “clear guidance to ensure it is everyone. No-one should fall through the cracks this winter.”

And the Homeless Link charity argued that it will “once again be essential” when lockdown ends to have an “Everyone In For Good” scheme to move people from emergency and short-term accommodation into longer-term housing.