HOMELESS charities have welcomed the decriminalisation of rough sleeping as the government scraps a “deeply cruel” 200-year-old law on Monday.

The Vagrancy Act, introduced in 1824 for the punishment of “idle and disorderly persons, and rogues and vagabonds,” will be repealed.

Ministers had previously announced plans to repeal the law by spring this year, with fresh powers in Labour’s Crime & Policing Act passed in April intended to replace the old legislation.

Offences created under the new Act such as facilitating begging for gain and trespassing with the intention of committing a crime now fill a gap in the law that would have been left over by removing the old legislation, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government officials said.

The old legislation will now be formally repealed on Monday via secondary legislation, marking what charities and campaigners have hailed as a watershed moment.

St Mungo’s chief executive Emma Haddad said the change was “an important shift towards a more humane approach: one that focuses on support, tackles root causes and helps prevent homelessness.”

Crisis chief executive Matt Downie said the 1824 Act had “punished people who have been forced to sleep on the streets” and “pushed people in already vulnerable situations away from support services and into the shadows for fear of being penalised.

“This is a watershed moment which marks the end of a deeply cruel policy of criminalising people because they are homeless.”

Housing Justice chief executive Bonnie Williams said repealing the Act should be part of a wider change in approach to helping people off the streets.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said the move would help shift “from punishment to prevention” in tackling homelessness.