Homelessness

(asked on 20th January 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of homeless people in (a) the UK, (b) England, (c) Hertfordshire and (d) Stevenage constituency; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Luke Hall Portrait
Luke Hall
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 23rd January 2020

Homelessness is a devolved matter in the UK and statistics are produced by each UK country separately. MHCLG therefore holds data for England only. The Government Statistical Service Harmonisation Team have developed an interactive tool providing guidance on comparing statistics across UK countries and shows how each country’s statistics are collected. The tool is available here: https://gss.civilservice.gov.uk/tools/GSS-Homelessness-Interactive-Tool/

Following the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, homeless households are owed a 56 day relief duty before a main duty decision is made. In England between April to June 2019, 32,220 households who presented themselves to their local authority were initially assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty. During the same period, 8,360 households in England were assessed as owed a main homelessness duty. In Hertfordshire, 536 households were owed a relief duty and 223 were owed a main homelessness duty in April to June 2019. In Stevenage, 72 households were owed a relief duty and 13 were owed a main homelessness duty.

In December 2019 we announced the allocation of £263 million in funding for 2020/21 to local authorities designed to support them to deliver services to tackle homelessness. The purpose of this funding is to give local authorities more control and flexibility in managing homelessness pressures and supporting those who are at risk of homelessness, including providing them with temporary accommodation.

Table 1: Number of households owed relief duties and main duties, April to June 2019

Relief duties owed

Main duty acceptances

England

32,220

8,360

Hertfordshire

536

223

Stevenage

72

13

Source: Homelessness statistics (HCLIC), MHCLG

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