Sleeping Rough
(asked on 23rd April 2019) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of rough sleeping in (a) Liverpool, (b) Merseyside and (c) England; and if he will make a statement.
MHCLG’s latest annual Rough Sleeping Statistics published on 31 January 2019 show the total number of people counted or estimated to be sleeping rough in England on a single night in Autumn 2018 was 4,677. This was down by 74 people or 2 per cent from the 2017 total of 4,751, and was up 2,909 people or 165 per cent from the 2010 total of 1,768.
These single night snapshots of the number of people sleeping rough are provided by all local authority areas in England. In Liverpool, there were 15 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2018. This was down by 18 people or 55 per cent from the 2017 total of 33, and was up 12 people or 400 per cent from the 2010 total of 3.
The single night snapshots for (a) Liverpool and (b) those local authorities in Merseyside are provided in table below.
Rough sleeping single night snapshots, 2010 - 2018 | |||||||||
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Liverpool | 3 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 15 | 21 | 33 | 15 |
% change from previous year |
| 200 | -33 | 0 | 33 | 88 | 40 | 57 | -55 |
Knowsley | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
% change from previous year |
| 0 | 200 | -67 | -100 | - | 100 | -100 | - |
St Helens | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 14 |
% change from previous year |
| 0 | 0 | -50 | -100 | - | 0 | 350 | 56 |
Sefton | 4 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 11 |
% change from previous year |
| 50 | 17 | 29 | 22 | -64 | 0 | 125 | 22 |
Wirral | 4 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 16 |
% change from previous year |
| 25 | 40 | 0 | -29 | 60 | 38 | 27 | 14 |
England | 1,768 | 2,181 | 2,309 | 2,414 | 2,744 | 3,569 | 4,134 | 4,751 | 4,677 |
% change from previous year |
| 23 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 30 | 16 | 15 | -2 |
These statistics are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2018
This Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy which sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. This year, Rough Sleeping Initiative investment totals £46 million and has been allocated to 246 areas – providing funding for an estimated 750 additional staff and over 2,600 bed spaces.