Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether new statistics to be published from December 2018 on (a) statutory homelessness, (b) homelessness prevention and relief and (c) temporary accommodation will be directly comparable with previous statistics published by his Department.

The homelessness statistics published in December 2018 will be the first set of statistics published since we overhauled the statutory homelessness data collection to give us better insights into the causes of homelessness and the support people need. Under this new system, headline figures showing the number of homeless acceptances will be broadly comparable and the number of households in temporary accommodation will be comparable with previous statistics published by the Department.

The Homelessness Reduction Act which commenced on 3 April brought in a new duty to help prevent anyone at risk of homelessness within 56 days and a new statutory duty to relieve homelessness for those who are already homeless. As a result of these changes, homelessness prevention and relief statistics will not be directly comparable with previous statistics published by the Department.