Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of Ground 8 of the 1988 Housing Act on levels of (a) evictions and (b) homelessness.

The Government publishes data on the causes of homelessness amongst households owed a prevention duty by their local council. Of the 31,210 households owed a prevention duty as a result of being at risk of homelessness in Q3 of 2021, 1,520 were at risk of homelessness due to an assured shorthold tenancy in the private rented sector ending due to rent arrears.

We do not publish data on the number of evictions caused by use of each ground under section 8 of the 1988 Housing Act.