The number of homeless charities should be slashed, according to one of the most senior figures in housing, who resigned this week as chairman of the rough sleepers charity Crisis over its decision not to merge with Shelter. Speaking for the first time since his resignation, David Edmonds said: "There are too many homeless charities, given the nature of the problem."
According to the government's rough sleepers unit there are only 270 rough sleepers in London and 530 in England as a whole. And yet there are 130 homeless charities operating in London alone.
Mr Edmonds, who is the director general of the telecommunication watchdog Oftel and former chief executive of the housing corporation, said: "Street homelessness is now a very, very marginal issue indeed. I didn't think we needed both Shelter and Crisis".
He claimed there was a need for a national organisation campaigning on wider issues such as the increase in the number of families housed in bed and breakfast hotels, rather than rough sleeping.
Crisis chief executive Shaks Ghosh said the merger talks broke down because Crisis felt that "diversity is the best way of helping homeless people".
Mr Edmonds disagreed. He said: "I prefer focus rather than diversity. The focus that Shelter and Crisis combined could have brought to bear would have been much sharper."
He added: "I felt that the sum of the parts of both organisations would be much stronger than the organisations remaining divided."
He also revealed how close the two organisations had come to a merger. He said they had almost reached an agreement on the formation of a new board before Crisis rejected the idea.
Mr Edmonds' fellow trustees pulled out over fears that Shelter would become the dominant player in the new organisation.
Mr Edmonds said: "There was growing anxiety on the part of some trustees that the Crisis ethos would get lost in a large organisation. I did not happen to agree with that. I was among a small minority on the board by the end."
