A charity has said a decision to cut all funding for rough sleepers will put 900 people on the streets.

Richard Gammage, chief executive of Two Saints - which covers Southampton and wider Hampshire - currently receives cash from Hampshire County Council to provide homeless accommodation.

But he has spoken out as the county council is set to axe £2m funding for services that it is not required to pay for by law.

Two Saints is one of three providers currently receiving funding from the county council for accommodation.

Mr Gammage said: “From April 2025, if approved, they will remove all funding for homelessness support from Hampshire, all funding, not a percentage of it, but every bit of support.

“The impact across Hampshire is on about 900 people in any given year who access the bed space.

"There are 172 individuals on any given night who are in bed spaces that we provide across Hampshire, and those bed spaces will all go.

"Effectively, about 900 additional people will end up rough sleeping in Hampshire in any given year, starting from April 2025.”

The council funds 172 bed spaces for people experiencing homelessness, community support programmes, and an Outreach and In-Reach Resettlement Service in Basingstoke.

If the proposal goes ahead, Mr Gammage said his charity would be “unable” to provide those bed spaces and the support they offer.

Mr Gammage added: “So they will end up being the responsibility of the local districts who will be facing more rough sleeping in their areas.

“We know, for example, that on any given night, we house between 44 and 45 individuals in Andover. Those individuals will be rough sleeping in Andover and others in Fareham, Gosport, Petersfield, and Aldershot.”

Between April and June 2023, 2,020 households across Hampshire were assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness and owed a homeless duty by district councils—a 19 per cent increase compared to April-June 2022.

The latest annual rough sleeper count found rough sleeping in Hampshire increased by 28 per cent, indicating that rough sleeping is rising in the county faster than the national average.

Two Saints offers services in 85 buildings in Hampshire. The proposal would impact ten of them including in Eastleigh, Fareham and Gosport.

A spokesperson for Hampshire County Council said: “For a long time now, we’ve been very clear about the huge budget pressures facing the county council from April 2025 onwards and, like many local authorities nationally, our budgets are under considerable pressure from rising costs and growing demand in key areas such as social care for vulnerable children and adults."

A consultation ends on March 31.