Rough sleepers have been moved on from where they were sleeping near Tottenham Court Road

• WITH the government banging on about the need to get people back to work so that we can have growth – the magic ingredient that will solve most of our economic problems – how depressing it is to read that once again homeless people are being pushed around like unwanted livestock, (It’s de ja vu as rough sleepers are told to move on again, February 6).

Some of our rough sleepers – miraculously – do indeed work for a living but, of course, for many holding down a job in such precarious circumstances is just impossible.

So, in the eyes of the state, these people are idle, non-productive. Add to their legions renting tenants who once moved on are offered housing miles away from their children’s schools or family support networks.

Holding down a job is a tough call for them, too. Meanwhile cash-strapped local councils are paying top dollar to “enterprising” landlords for their temporary accommodation.

Surely investing in people who have fallen on hard times is, in the long term, cheaper and, dare I say it, more humane than herding them from place to place so they cannot even dream of a settled existence when they can get jobs and help grow the economy.

I didn’t expect anything better from the Conservative free market ideologues. But a Labour government must surely do better than this?

FW ANDERSON, NW3