Ed Sheeran has furiously shot down claims he is installing railings outside his home to prevent rough sleepers.
On Sunday (15 April), The Sun published a report stating the singer had submitted a planning application to build railings “to keep out homeless people”.
An angered Ed, who has been a vocal supporter of homeless charities in the past, blasted the “bollocks” story in a post on Instagram.
“Your story is bollocks, I have done lots of work in the past for Crisis and Shelter and would never build railings outside my home for that reason,” he wrote.
“The reason was to keep the paps that you employ from being on my doorstep. Have a good day.”
The Sun’s story quoted Ed’s building agent Paul Smith, who said the planning application states one of the reasons for the railings is “preventing opportunities for rough sleeping”.
However, a spokesperson for the singer explained: “This is a standard planning application, which was not written by Ed, and it is not reflective of Ed’s views or feelings on homelessness.”
Ed previously wrote a song called ‘Homeless’ and detailed how he spent some nights without a roof over his head in his 2014 book’ A Visual Journey’.
He wrote: “There was an arch outside Buckingham Palace that has a heating duct and I spent a couple of nights there. That’s where I wrote the song ‘Homeless’.”
He later spoke out to clarify the comments had been taken out of context, stating: “Everyone’s saying Ed Sheeran was homeless - I never say that in the book, I went without a bed for some nights, that’s it. It’s just that I didn’t have a place to stay [those nights], so I slept on the Central Line and outside Buckingham Palace. That’s just what I did.”
- To report a rough sleeper call 0300 500 0914 or visit Streetlink