Accredited official statistics

Statutory homelessness in England: July to September 2024

Published 27 February 2025

Applies to England

1. About our statistics

This is the quarterly statistics release for statutory homelessness assessments and activities in England between 1 July and 30 September 2024. It also reports on households in temporary accommodation under the statutory homelessness duty in England on 30 September 2024.

• Statutory homelessness refers to duties placed on local authorities to take reasonable steps to prevent and relieve homelessness to eligible households.

• Data is collected quarterly from local authorities in England via the Homelessness Case Level Information Collection. This method of collection was introduced in 2018 alongside significant homelessness legislation; before this statutory homelessness was recorded in a previous collection called the P1E.

• Most of our figures are a cumulative count of households who reached different stages of homelessness duties during the reported quarter. Temporary accommodation is different and is a snapshot of the last day of the quarter.

1.1 Our published outputs

On the Statutory homelessness in England July to September publication page, we also publish:

• An Infographic: which gives a summary and charts covering key headlines from this release.
• A Technical note: which provides key definitions and information on our statistics methodology.
• Detailed local-authority level data tables.
• Performance dashboard: which provides a high-level summary of homeless figures by local authority.
• Statistics use, improvements, and user engagement note.

An England level data time series and revised tables from previous quarters are available on our tables on homelessness page.

1.2 Uses and limitations

These statistics can be used:

• To count the number of homelessness duties accepted by local authorities for this quarter and to compare local authorities and regions in England.

• To assess changes in the number of homelessness duties since 2018.

• To understand the causes, circumstances, and characteristics of households owed a duty for this quarter.

• To understand the number and characteristics of households in Temporary Accommodation.

These statistics are not suitable:

• To estimate the total number of people sleeping rough.

• To estimate the total number of people sofa surfing, those in recreational or organised protest, those in squats, or traveller campsites.

• To estimate the households that have yet to make a homelessness application and those who aren’t eligible.

• To compare with other countries in the UK.

• To compare to figures recorded via the P1E.

1.3 Assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

These statistics are labelled Accredited Official Statistics. See information on Accredited Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website.

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in October 2023. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

Please note that Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

More information on the UK statistical system is available via the UK Statistics Authority website.

Information about statistics at MHCLG is available via the Department’s website.

1.4 Release information and contact

Release date: 27 February 2025

Date of next release: Spring 2025

Contact: 0303 444 8433 / homelessnessstats@communities.gov.uk (Responsible Statistician: Madeha Asim)

Media enquiries: 0303 444 1209 / NewsDesk@communities.gov.uk

Feedback: Please complete our user engagement survey.

2. Main findings

Between July and September 2024:

• 88,690 households had initial assessments, down 2.0% from July to September 2023.

• From these initial assessments, 81,370 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.

• 36,450 households were assessed as being threatened with homelessness, and therefore owed a prevention duty which is down 1.3% from the same quarter last year. This includes 6,800 households threatened with homelessness due to service of a Section 21 notice to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy which increased of 0.6% from the same quarter last year.

• 44,920 households were initially assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty, up 1.5% from the same quarter last year. Households with children owed a relief duty decreased 0.5% from the same quarter last year to 12,210 households in July to September 2024.

• 17,580 households were accepted as owed a main homelessness duty , up 9.0% from July to September 2023.

• On 30 September 2024, 126,040 households were in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 15.7% from 30 September 2023. Households with children increased by 15.7% to 80,530, and single households increased by 15.8% to 45,510. Compared to the previous quarter, the number of households in temporary accommodation had increased by 2.4%.

3. Initial assessments (Table A1)

The assessments section and data in the ‘A’ Tables published with this release report on households who had an initial statutory homelessness assessment in England between 1 July and 30 September 2024.

Prevention duty: Local authorities may deliver their prevention duty through any activities aimed at preventing a household threatened with homelessness within 56 days from becoming homeless. This would involve activities to enable an applicant to remain in their current home or find alternative accommodation in order to prevent them from becoming homeless. The duty lasts for up to 56 days but may be extended if the local authority is continuing with efforts to prevent homelessness.

Relief duty: The relief duty is owed to households that are already homeless on approaching a local authority, and so require help to secure settled accommodation. The duty lasts 56 days and can only be extended by a local authority if the household is not owed the main homelessness duty.

Section 21 notice: A Section 21 notice is the form a landlord must give a tenant to start the process to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. This is recorded alongside initial assessments.

Prevention duty owed is down 1.3% whereas relief duty owed is up 1.5% from July to September 2023

Chart 1: Number of households owed a prevention or relief duty since April to June (Q2) 2019

4. Household composition (Tables A5P and A5R)

Single households: A term used for households without children, which will include couples and households with two or more adults.

Single adult households: Single adult households are a subset of single households, where the household comprises just one individual adult.

During this quarter, single households were more likely to have homeless applications taken when already homeless and so are owed a relief duty (60.6%), whereas households with children are more likely to have an application taken when threatened with homelessness (55.5%). This is similar to trend observed in previous quarters.

In July to September 2024, 53,920 single households were owed a prevention or relief duty, up 1.3% from July to September 2023. While, the number of households with children owed a prevention or relief duty decreased 2.0% from July to September 2023 to 27,410.

5. Reasons for homelessness (Tables A2P and A2R)

Chart 2: Shows the reason for loss or threat of loss of settled home of those owed a prevention or relief duty

5.1 Reasons for homelessness for households assessed as owed a prevention duty

In July to September 2024, four in ten households (14,720) were assessed as owed a prevention duty due to the ‘end of a private rented AST’, 0.5% fewer than the same period in 2023.

Almost half of these (46.7% or 6,880) resulted from the ‘landlord wishing to sell the property’ and a further fifth (19.0%, 2,800) from ‘landlord wishing to relet the property’.

The second most common reason households were owed a prevention duty was ‘family or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate’, accounting for 8,870 or 24.3% of households owed a prevention duty, which is 1.3% higher than the same period last year.

Other large changes for households owed a prevention duty include:

• An increase of 40.0% in ‘departure from institution with no accommodation available- looked after child placement’ to 210 households.

• A decrease of 35.4% in ‘requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support’ to 620 households.

• A decrease of 26.4.4% in ‘other violence or harassment’ to 390 households.

5.2 Reasons for homelessness for households assessed as assessed as owed a relief duty

For those owed a relief duty, ‘family or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate’ was the most common reason for homelessness, accounting for 14,050 or 31.3% of households owed a relief duty. This is an increase of 4.1% from the same quarter last year.

The second most common reason was ‘domestic abuse’, accounting for 7,340 or 16.3% of households owed a relief duty. This had decreased 1.5% from the same quarter last year.

Other large changes compared to the same quarter last year for households owed a relief duty include:

• an increase of 108.3% in ‘departure from institution with no accommodation available- Looked after child placement’ to 250 households

• a decrease of 18.3% in ‘requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support’ to 2,010 households

5.3 Reporting households owed a duty due to loss of placement or sponsorship that was provided through a resettlement scheme

From this quarter, our tables on homelessness now include category of households owed a duty where there was a loss of placement or sponsorship that was provided through a resettlement scheme, such as the Ukraine and Afghan schemes. These cases were previously included under ”other”.

In July to September 2024 240 households were recorded as owed a prevention duty and 90 were owed a relief duty, due to Loss of placement or sponsorship provided through a resettlement scheme.

Figures may initially be an undercount until all authorities begin using this new reporting category on their recording systems.

6. Current accommodation (Tables: A4P, A4R)

Rough sleeping: People sleeping in the open air (such as on the streets, in tents, doorways, parks, bus shelters or encampments) or other places not designed for habitation (such as stairwells, barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations, or ‘bashes’ which are makeshift shelters, often comprised of cardboard boxes). Rough sleepers in this publication may have slept rough one night or across several nights.

Rough sleeping at the time of Local Authority Approach: Rough sleepers are defined as those who were, in the judgement of the assessor, rough sleeping when they approached a local authority for help.

History of Rough Sleeping: This is a support need based on a history of sleeping rough and does not mean that the household was sleeping rough at the time of approach to the local authority.

In July to September 2024, 23,470 households owed a prevention or relief duty were in the private rented sector at the time of application, down 1.8% from the previous year.

The most common type of accommodation at the time of application for those owed a prevention duty was in the ‘private rented sector’ (46.8%), down 2.2% from July to September 2023 to 17,070 households. This is consistent with the reasons for threat of homelessness for those owed prevention duties (described above).

For those owed relief duty, those in the ‘private rented sector’ at the time of application accounted for 14.2% of households, down 0.5% from the same period last quarter to 6,400 households.

The most common type of accommodation for households owed a relief duty was ‘living with family’ (24.9%), which increased by 3.2% from July to September 2023 to 11,200 households. For those owed a prevention duty, households ‘living with family’ at the time of application had increased 0.5% to 8,750 households.

The number of households owed a relief duty who were ‘rough sleeping’ on approach increased by 13.6% from July to September 2023 to 4,760 households, and those reporting ‘no fixed abode’ rose 4.5% to 5,350 households.

It is worth noting that the percentage reported as ‘Other/not known’ accommodation at the time of application has reduced by 2.0% for prevention duties and risen by 11.8% for relief duties.

7. Duty to refer (Table A7)

Duty to Refer: Since 1 October 2018, duty to refer has required specified public bodies to refer, with consent, users of their service who they think may be homeless or threatened with homelessness to a local housing authority of the individuals choice.

8.1% or 7,210 of the 88,690 assessments made were as a result of referrals from public bodies under the duty to refer.

Of the assessments carried out from a duty to refer referral, 93.5% resulted in a homelessness duty. Criminal justice system organisations made the most assessments due to referrals to homelessness services under the duty to refer with 3,120 assessments (43.3% of total assessments from a duty to refer referral), an increase of 3.7% from July to September 2023.

8. Demographics

8.1 Household support needs (Table A3)

Support needs: areas of additional needs that mean the household may require support to acquire and sustain accommodation, giving an indication of the additional services local authorities need to provide to prevent an individual becoming homeless or to stop the cycle of repeat homelessness. Local authorities report as many support needs that apply to each household.

Of all households owed either a prevention or relief duty, 46,200 or 56.8% identified as having one or more support needs.

The most common support need was for those with ‘history of mental health problems’, accounting for 22,700 or 27.9% of households owed a homelessness duty. The second most common was for those with ‘physical ill health and disability’ accounting for 17,420 or 21.4% of households owed a duty.

Other common groups include households with a member with support needs due to :

• ‘risk of, or with experience of, domestic abuse’ (12.5%)

• those with ‘offending history’ (8.4%)

• those with a ‘history of repeat homelessness’ (6.9%)

• those with ‘learning disability’ (6.4%).

8.2 Age of lead applicants (Table A6)

For households owed a prevention or relief duty the most common age of lead applicants was ‘25-34’, accounting for 28.4% or 23,120 households owed a duty in July to September 2024.

The number of households with lead applicants in this age group has decreased 2.5% compared to the same period last year. The number of lead applicants aged 65 and over has increased by 15.0% since the same period last year, and now represents 4.9% of applicants, up 0.6 percentage points from July to September 2023.

Other notable changes from the previous year include:

• households with lead applicants aged ‘75+’ increased 21.5% to 1,130

• households with lead applicants aged ‘65-74’ increased 12.6% to 2,850

* households with lead applicants aged ‘16-17’ decreased by 14.0%, to 490

8.3 Ethnicity of lead applicants (Table A8)

The majority of households owed a prevention or relief duty were where the lead applicant was ‘White’ (64.0%).

This was followed by households where the lead applicant was ‘Black’ (11.0%) or ‘Asian’ (8.0%).

The number of households owed a prevention or relief duty where the lead applicant was:

• ‘Asian’ increased by 10.2% to 6,600 households

• ‘Black’ increased by 4.0% to 9,340

• ‘Mixed’ increased by 2.5% to 2,870

• ‘White’ increased by 0.2% to 51,830

• was of an ‘Other’ ^{[footnote 1]} ethnic group increased by 15.9% to 4,600

• where ethnic group was ‘unknown’ fell by 20.4% to 6,130

8.4 Employment status of lead applicants (Table A10)

The most common employment status of lead applicants was ‘registered unemployed’, accounting for 34.3% or 27,950 households owed a duty in July to September 2024.

The number of households with lead applicants in this group has increased 1.8% compared to the same period last year.

The number of households owed a prevention or relief duty where the lead applicant was:

• ‘retired’ increased 14.5% to 2,770

• ‘not registered but seeking work’ increased 8.6% to 3,170

• classed as having an ‘Other’ employment status decreased 10.3% to 2,270

• a ‘student or in training’ decreased 7.8% to 1,060

• ‘working irregular hours’ decreased 7.6% to 1,950

9. Prevention duty outcomes (Table P1)

The Prevention duty outcomes section and data in the ‘P’ Tables published with this release report on households whose prevention duty ended between 1 July and 30 September 2024.

Over half of the prevention duties which ended were due to homelessness being successfully prevented.

In July to September 2024, prevention duty ended for 35,380 households, up 4.6% from the same quarter last year.

Over half of the prevention duties which ended between July to September 2024 (18,370 or 51.9%) ended because the household secured accommodation for 6 months or more and their homelessness had been prevented, up 1.6 percentage points from last year.

Prevention duties are owed to households who are threatened with homelessness, this means that some outcomes for this group include remaining in their existing home. This could be achieved with negotiation work to allow the household to remain in their exiting accommodation, or help with financial payments to reduce arrears. Of the households who secured accommodation at the end of their prevention duty, 6,630 or 36.1%, were able to remain in their existing home, up 3.2 percentage points from this time last year.

However, more than a quarter (9,080 or 25.7%) of households whose prevention duty ended, were homeless at the end of the prevention duty and were subsequently owed relief duty. This is 1.1 percentage points less than the same quarter last year.

10. Relief duty outcomes (Table R1)

The Relief duty outcomes section and data in the ‘R’ Tables published with this release report on households whose relief duty ended between 1 July and 30 September 2024.

74.3% of households who secured accommodation for at least 6 months after relief duty ended were households without children.

In July to September 2024, relief duties ended for 53,570 households, which is up 12.3% from the same quarter last year.

Of the 53,570 households where relief duties ended this quarter, 16,590 or 31.0% had accommodation secured for at least 6 months, down 2.2 percentage points from the same quarter last year. Of these, 74.3% (12,320) were single households, up 0.2 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

For more than half (27,450 or 51.2%) of households, the relief duty ended because their homelessness had not been relieved within 56 days, meaning their local authority would need to assess whether a main duty would have to be owed. This is up 3.7 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

11. Main duty decisions (Tables MD1 and MD3)

The Main Duty Decisions section and data in the ‘MD1’ and ‘MD3’ tables published with this release report on households who received a decision between 1 July and 30 September 2024 on whether they were owed a main homelessness duty.

Main Duty: The main homelessness duty describes the duty a local authority has towards an applicant who is unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance and has priority need. These households are only owed a main duty if they did not secure accommodation in the prevention or relief stage, and so is not owed to those threatened with homelessness. In addition, a minimum of 56 days of assistance must have elapsed from a household approaching the local authority to being owed a main duty.

Priority need: The legislation states that some categories of applicants have a priority need for accommodation if homeless, whereas others do not. Applicants who have priority need include households with dependent children or a pregnant woman; those who are homeless due to fire, flood or other emergency; those who are particularly vulnerable due to ill health, disability or old age; those having been in custody or care; or those who have become homeless due to violence or the threat of violence. A full explanation of priority need groups and assessments is contained in Chapter 8 of the Homelessness Code of Guidance.

Number of households with children owed a main duty increased by 6.0% from the same quarter last year.

In July to September 2024, local authorities made 26,410 main duty decisions for eligible households:

• 17,580 main duties were accepted, as the household was judged to be homeless, with priority need, and unintentionally homeless. This is an increase of 9.0% in the absolute number of households with a main duty accepted compared to July to September 2023. Main duties accepted represented 66.6% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is a lower proportion compared to the same quarter last year (down 5.6 percentage points).

• 1,030 decisions were that a main duty was not owed as the household was assessed to be homeless and have priority need, but judged as intentionally homeless. This is an increase of 10.8% in the absolute number of households compared to July to September 2023. These decisions represented 3.9% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This proportion is largely the same compared to the same quarter last year (down 0.3 percentage points).

• 7,460 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as homeless but with no priority need. This is an increase of 49.5% in the absolute number of households compared to July to September 2023. These decisions represented 28.2% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is up 5.9 percentage points, reflecting that a higher proportion of households are being assessed as homeless with no priority need compared to the same period last year.

• 340 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as not homeless. This is an increase of 21.4% in the absolute number of households compared to July to September 2023. These decisions represented 1.3% of all main duty decisions in the quarter, which is the same proportion as the same quarter last year.

Other points to note:

• The number of households with children owed a main duty increased by 6.0% from the same quarter last year to 9,020 households

• The number of households owed a main duty who were homeless and have priority need due to domestic abuse had increased by 23.3% to 1,480 from July to September 2023, reflecting an increase in households who were homeless or threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse over the last year.

Chart 3: Number of households by outcome of main duty assessment in July to September (Q3) 2024 compared to July to September (Q3) 2023

12. Main duty outcomes (Table MD2)

The Main Duty Outcomes section and data in the ‘MD2’ table published with this release report on households whose main duty came to an end between 1 July and 30 September 2024.

In July to September 2024, 12,710 households had their main homelessness duty come to an end, up 13.2% from July to September 2023.

Of these households, 9,850 households accepted an offer of settled accommodation, up 9.2% from the same quarter last year. Households accepting an accommodation offer represented 77.5% of all main duties ending in the quarter. This is down 2.8 percentage points, reflecting that a lower proportion of households are securing settled accommodation at the end of a main duty compared to the same period last year.

13. Temporary accommodation (Table TA1)

The Temporary accommodation section and data in the ‘TA’ tables published with this release report on households who were in Temporary accommodation on the 30 September 2024.

Temporary Accommodation: Temporary Accommodation is the term used to describe accommodation secured by a local housing authority under their statutory homelessness functions. The majority of households in temporary accommodation have been placed under the main homelessness duty, but temporary accommodation is also provided during the relief stage to households who the local authority has reason to believe may have priority need, or on an interim basis in other circumstances such as pending the outcome of a review on a homelessness decision.

126,040 households were in temporary accommodation on 30 September 2024, up 2.4% from the previous quarter and up 15.7% from the same time last year.

The number of single households in temporary accommodation rose 1.9% from the previous quarter and rose 15.8% from the same time last year to 45,510.

Overall, 80,530 households or 63.9% of households in temporary accommodation included dependent children, with 164,040 dependent children living in temporary accommodation. Households with children increased 2.7% from the previous quarter and increased 15.7% from 30 September 2023 to 80,530.

Chart 4: Number of households in temporary accommodation 30 June (Q2) 2019 to 30 September (Q2) 2024 by household composition

On 30 September 2024, there were 19.3 households living in temporary accommodation per 1,000 households in London, compared with 2.7 households per 1,000 in the Rest of England. Newham London Borough had the highest rate of temporary accommodation in London with 55.7 per 1,000 households.

Slough Borough Council had the highest rate outside London with 19.73 per 1,000 households.

13.1 Out of area temporary accommodation placements

38,690 or 30.7% of households in temporary accommodation were in accommodation in a different local authority district. 79.8% of these out of district placements were from London authorities.

13.2 Types of temporary accommodation

Chart 5: Number of households in temporary accommodation on 30 September 2024 by temporary accommodation type and household composition.

Of the households in temporary accommodation, 17,620 (or 14.0%) were living in bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation, up 18.5% from the same time last year. Of these households in B&B accommodation, 12,220 (69.4%) were single households, up 19.9% from the same time last year. The number of households in B&B accommodation with dependent children increased 15.4% to 5,400 households on 30 September 2024.

3,470 households with children in B&B accommodation had been resident for more than the statutory limit of 6 weeks. This is up 30.0% from 2,670 on 30 September 2023, but down 8.0% from 3,770 in the previous quarter.

14. Accompanying tables

The detailed local authority level tables for this quarter, and an England level data time series are available to download alongside this release on our tables on homelessness page

Initial assessments of statutory homelessness duties owed

• A1: Number of households assessed and owed a prevention or relief duty

• A2P: Reason for loss of last settled home for households assessed as owed a prevention duty

• A2R: Reason for loss of last settled home for households assessed as owed a relief duty

• A3: Support needs of households assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty

• A4P: Accommodation at time of application for households assessed as owed a prevention duty

• A4R: Accommodation at time of application for households assessed as owed a relief duty

• A5P: Household type at time of application for households assessed as owed a prevention duty

• A5R: Household type at time of application for households assessed as owed a relief duty

• A6: Age of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty

• A7: Households referred to a local authority prior to being assessed

• A8: Ethnicity of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention of relief duty

• A9: Nationality of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty ^{[footnote 2]}

• A10: Employment status of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty

• A11: Reason for eligibility of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty ^{[footnote 2]}

• A12: Sexual orientation of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty

• A13: Gender identity of main applicants assessed as owed a prevention or relief duty

Statutory homelessness prevention and relief duty outcomes

• P1/R1: Reason for households’ duty ending

• P2/R2: Type of accommodation secured for households at end of duty

• P3/R3: Main activity that resulted in accommodation secured for households at end of duty

• P4/R4: Destination of households with accommodation secured at end of duty ^{[footnote 2]}

• P5/R5: Household type of households with accommodation secured at end of duty

Statutory homelessness main duty decisions & outcomes

• MD1: Outcome of main duty decision for eligible households

• MD2: Outcome of households no longer owed a main duty

• MD3: Priority need category of households owed a main duty

Households in temporary accommodation

• TA1: Number of households in temporary accommodation at end of quarter by temporary accommodation type

• TA2: Number of households in temporary accommodation at end of quarter by household type

• TA3: Number of households in temporary accommodation at end of quarter by duty provide

15. Technical information

Please see the technical notes for further details on the data used for this release. Further information about official statistics is also available on the UK Statistics Authority and Statistics at MHCLG website.

1. Other ethnic group is defined as Arab or any other ethnic group that is not White, Asian, Black or Mixed ethnic group. ↩

2. These tables are only be published as part of the expanded annual release at end of financial year. The latest published figures can be found in Detailed local authority level tables: financial year files on our [tables on homelessness page] (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness). ↩ ↩² ↩³