Accredited official statistics

Statutory homelessness in England: April to June 2024

Updated 3 December 2024

Applies to England

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

Alongside this statistics release, the department also publishes an accompanying technical note, detailed local-authority level data tables, a data dashboard that provides spatial and time-series representation of the data in the data-tables, a performance dashboard that provides a high-level summary of homeless figures by local authority and a info-graphic summarising the key headlines from this release. These publications are available on the statutory homelessness in England webpage.

1. About our statistics

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

• Each case included in this report is representative of a household, which includes households with children as well as single adult houses.

• This report only covers those owed a duty between 1 April and 30 June 2024.

• All figures except for temporary accommodation is a cumulative count over the period of the reported quarter, temporary accommodation is a snapshot of the last day of the quarter.

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

• Definitions and a comprehensive breakdown of the quality assurance process can be found in the technical notes. Further information about official statistics is also available on the UK Statistics Authority and Statistics at MHCLG website.

1.1 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 of households and the characteristics of 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

1.2 Assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

These statistics are have been 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.

2. In this release:

Between April to June 2024:

• Authorities reported on initial assessments for 90,990 households, up 10.3% from April to June 2023.

• From these initial assessments, 83,240 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.

• 37,250 households were initially assessed as being threatened with homelessness, and therefore owed a prevention duty which is up 3.2% from the same quarter last year. This includes 7,040 households threatened with homelessness due to service of a Section 21 notice to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy – an increase of 2.6% from the same quarter last year.

• 45,980 households were initially assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty, up 13.8% from the same quarter last year.

• 18,000 households were accepted as owed a main homelessness duty, up 15.9% from April to June 2023. This reflects the increase in households with children owed a relief duty this quarter (10.6%) and last quarter (8.5%) compared to the same quarter last year.

• On 30 June 2024, 123,100 households were in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 16.3% from 30 June 2023. Households with children increased by 15.1% to 78,420, and single households increased by 18.5% to 44,680. Compared to the previous quarter, the number of households in temporary accommodation had increased by 4.9%.

We would welcome any feedback to help shape future publications by completing this user engagement survey.

Release date: 28 November 2024

Date of next release: Winter/Spring 2025

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

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

3. Initial assessments

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.

Authorities reported on initial assessments for 90,990 households, up 10.3% from April to June 2023. This includes households where an assessment was due/made but did not go on to be owed a duty (3,650 who were not homeless nor threatened with homelessness within 56 days so no duty owed, 3,430 households who withdrew an application before the assessment took place, and those that were not eligible or no longer eligible 680).

 From these initial assessments, 83,240 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.

Chart 1: Number of households owed a prevention or relief duty since Q2 2019

Chart 1 shows the time series for the number of households owed a prevention or relief duty since Q2 2019.

4. Household composition

4.1 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.

In April to June 2024, 55,000 single households were owed a prevention or relief duty, up 11.5% from April to June 2023. While, the number of households with children owed a prevention or relief duty increased 3.9% from April to June 2023 to 28,220.In particular, Households with children owed a relief duty increased 10.6% from the same quarter last year to 12,360 households in April to June 2024.

During this quarter, single households were more likely to have homeless applications taken when already homeless and so are owed a relief duty (61.1%), whereas households with children are more likely to have an application taken when threatened with homelessness (56.2%).

5. Reasons for homelessness

5.1 Tables A2P and A2R

End of private rented Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) was the most common reason for households being owed a prevention duty, accounting for 15,350 or 41.2% of households. This is an increase of 2.5% from the same quarter last year. The most common recorded reasons households were owed a prevention duty due to the end of an AST were related to: landlord wishing to sell (7,130), or relet the property (2,810).

 A breakdown of households owed a prevention duty due to the end of an AST shows the biggest increase was due to rent arrears from changes in benefit entitlement, which increased by 91.7% from the same quarter last year. Despite the large relative increase, end of AST from rent arrears due to changes in benefit entitlement, still only represent a relatively small number of households (230 households).

The second most common reason for households being owed a prevention duty was family or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate, accounting for 8,530 or 22.9% of households owed a prevention duty, down 2.1% from the same quarter last year.

Other notable change(s) for households owed a prevention duty include, an increase of 84.6% in requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support to 960 households and an increase of 63.8% in departure from institution with no accommodation available to 1,130 households.

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 13,620 or 29.6% of households owed a relief duty, up 4.8% from the same quarter last year. The second most common reason for those owed a relief duty was due to domestic abuse, accounting for 7,260 or 15.8% of households owed a relief duty. This had increased 7.9% from the same quarter last year. Other notable change(s) from the same quarter last year for households owed a relief duty was an increase of 308.5% in requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support to 3,840 households and an increase of 29.5% in departure from institution with no accommodation available to 2,720 households.

6. Current accommodation

6.1 Tables A4P and 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.

The most common type of accommodation at the time of application for those owed a prevention duty was in the private rented sector (47.4%), down 0.1% from April to June 2023 to 17,640 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 13.9% of households, up 2.7% from the same period last quarter to 6,410 households.

The most common type of accommodation for households owed a relief duty was living with family (23.4%), which increased by 5.5% from April to June 2023 to 10,780 households. For those owed a prevention duty, households living with family at the time of application had increased 2.9% to 8,660 households.

The number of households owed a relief duty who were rough sleeping on approach increased by 20.7% from April to June 2023 to 4,370 households, while those reporting no fixed abode rose 2.0% to 5,210 households.

It is worth noting that the percentage reported as ‘Other/not known’ accommodation at the time of application has risen by 62.5% for prevention duties and risen by 47.9% for relief duties.  To note that the other/not know category usually includes a number of reported categories with small numbers. These include fire / flood / other emergency, left HM forces, mortgage repossession, property disrepair, other, Loss of tied accommodation, Unsuccessful placement, or Voluntarily left accommodation to relocate. Increases in any of these may results in observable increases in other/not known until these categories become large enough that we represent them separately in our data tables.

7. Duty to refer

7.1 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 individual’s choice.

8.0% or 7,310 of the 90,990 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, 92% resulted in a homelessness duty. Criminal justice system organisations made the most referrals to homelessness services under the duty to refer with 3,240 assessments (44.3% of total assessments from a duty to refer referral), an increase of 12.5% from April to June 2023.

Other notable change(s) in the number of assessments due to referrals from public bodies since April to June 2023 include an increase of 40.0% in assessments due to referrals from households referred as homeless or threatened with homelessness under an unknown duty to refer to 70 households, an increase of 33.3% in assessments due to referrals from children’s early help services/children’s centres to 120 households, an increase of 28.6% in assessments due to referrals from mental health in-patient care to 360 households and an increase of 21.1% in assessments due to referrals from Jobcentre Plus to 690 households.

8. Other demographics

8.1 Tables A3, A6, A8, and A10

Support needs: areas of additional needs that mean the household requires 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, 46,090 or 55.4% of households identified as having one or more support needs. The most common support need was for those with history of mental health problems, accounting for 22,090 or 26.5% of households owed a homelessness duty. The second most common was for those with physical ill health and disability accounting for 16,950 or 20.4% of households owed a duty. Other notable groups include those at risk of or with experience of domestic abuse (11.8%), those with offending history (8.0%) and those with a history of repeat homelessness (6.6%).

The overall increase in the number of households owed a prevention or relief duty in April to June 2024 compared to the previous year was driven by increases in lead applicants aged 35 and over. The largest increases were for the age groups 55-64 up 13.0% to 7,060, 75+ up 12.2% to 1,010 and 45-54 up 10.4% to 12,270. On the other hand, those aged 16-17 fell by 12.3% respectively.

The majority of households owed a prevention or relief duty were where the lead applicant was White (62.0%), followed by households where the lead applicant was Black (12.0%) or Asian (8.0%). The number of households owed a prevention or relief duty where the lead applicant was Asian increased by 33.5%, Mixed increased by 21.0%, Black increased by 15.9% and White increased by 1.6%.

The number of households where the lead applicant was of an Other ^{[footnote 1]} ethnic group  increased by 82.9% and accounted for 7.0% of households owed a duty. Conversely, those of unknown ethnic group fell by 2.0%, accounting for 8.0% of total households owed a duty.

The employment status that saw the largest increases in lead applicants of homelessness duty were those who were registered unemployed up 17.5% to 29,830, not registered but seeking work up 17.3% to 3,050, Households owed a prevention or relief duty whose main applicant is registered employed, but off work due to illness/ disability was up 13.8% to 1,400, retired was up 11.2% to 2,590, students or in training was up 10.2% to 1,300. Whilst those who were not seeking work / at home fell 1.7% to 5,290 and in full-time work fell 1.2% to 10,900.

Note that these do not include ‘Other’ or ‘Not known’ employment status classifications, which increased by 9.5% to 2,410 and increased by 3.2% to 3,500 respectively.

9. Outcomes

9.1 Tables P1 and R1

In April to June 2024, prevention duty ended for 35,250 households, up 7.2% from the same quarter last year; and 55,600 households also saw their relief duty end, which is up 17.0% from the same quarter last year.

Over half of the prevention duties which ended between April to June 2024 (18,390 or 52.2%) ended because the household secured accommodation for 6 months or more and their homelessness had been prevented, up 1.7 percentage points from last year. Of these households who secured accommodation at the end of their prevention duty, 6,660 or 36.2%, were able to remain in their existing home, up 2.5 percentage points from this time last year. This outcome was followed by 9,110 or 25.8% of households whose prevention duty ended and were homeless at the end of the prevention duty and were subsequently owed a relief duty, down 0.4 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

Of the 55,600 relief duties ended this quarter, 16,560 or 29.8% of households had accommodation secured for at least 6 months, down 2.5 percentage points from the same quarter last year. Of these, 75.0% (12,420) were single households, up 1.5 percentage points from the same quarter last year. This outcome was followed by 29,060, or 52.3% of households whose 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 3.6 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

10. Main homelessness duty

10.1 Tables MD1, MD2 and MD3

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.

In April to June 2024, local authorities made 27,570 main duty decisions for eligible households.

• 18,000 main duties were accepted, as the household was judged to be homeless, with priority need, and unintentionally homeless. This is an increase of 15.9% in the absolute number of households with a main duty accepted compared to April to June 2023. Main duties accepted represented 65.3% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is  down 4.4 percentage points, reflecting that a lower proportion of households are being accepted as owed a main duty compared to the same period in the previous year.

• 1,180 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 16.8% in the absolute number of households compared to April to June 2023. These decisions represented 4.3% 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).

• 8,180 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as homeless but with no priority need. This is a an increase of 49.8% in the absolute number of households compared to April to June 2023. These decisions represented 29.7% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is up 5.2 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.

• 200 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as not homeless. This is a decrease of 28.6% in the absolute number of households compared to April to June 2023. These decisions represented 0.7% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This proportion is largely the same compared to the same quarter last year (down 0.5 percentage points).

Other points to note:

• The number of households with children owed a main duty increased by 12.1% from the same quarter last year to 10,600 households. This includes households whose priority need was recorded as due to including dependent children (9,250) and a further 1,350 households including children but another priority need is reported.  This reflects the increase in households with children owed a relief duty this quarter (10.6%) and last quarter (8.5%) compared to the same quarter last year

• The number of households owed a main duty who were homeless and have priority need due to domestic abuse had increased by 14.5% to 1,340 from April to June 2023, reflecting an increase in households who were homeless or threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse over the last year.

Chart 2: Number of households by outcome of main duty assessment

Chart 2 shows the number of households by outcome of main duty assessment for Q2 2023 and Q2 2024.

In April to June 2024, 12,300 households had their main homelessness duty come to an end, up 16.6% from April to June 2023. Of these households, 9,640 households accepted an offer of settled accommodation, up 13.9% from the same quarter last year. Households accepting an accommodation offer represented 78.4% of all main duties ending in the quarter. This is down 1.8 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.

11. Temporary accommodation

11.1 Table TA1

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.

123,100 households were in temporary accommodation on 30 June 2024, up 4.9% from the previous quarter and up 16.3% from the same time last year. The number of single households in temporary accommodation rose 4.2% from the previous quarter and rose 18.5% from the same time last year to 44,680. Households with children increased 5.3% from the previous quarter and increased 15.1% from 30 June 2023 to 78,420.

On 30 June 2024, there were 18.9 households living in temporary accommodation per 1,000 households in London, compared with 2.6 households per 1,000 in the Rest of England. Newham London Borough had the highest rate of temporary accommodation in London with 54.6 households per 1,000 households.

Slough Borough Council had the highest rate outside London with 20.2 households per 1,000 households.

38,940 or 31.6% of households in temporary accommodation were in accommodation in a different local authority district. 80.3% of these out of district placements were from London authorities.

Chart 3: Number of households in temporary accommodation since Q2 2019 by household type

Chart 3 shows the time series for the number of households in temporary accommodation since Q2 2019 by household type.

Of the households in temporary accommodation, 18,380 were living in bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation on 30 June 2024, up 30.5% from the same time last year. Of these households in B&B, 12,470 (67.8%) were single households, up 29.9% from the same time last year. The number of households in B&B with dependent children increased 31.9%  since 30 June 2023, to 5,910 households. Of the households with children in B&B, 3,770 had been resident for more than the statutory limit of 6 weeks ^{[footnote 2]} . This is up 50.2% from 2,510 on 30 June 2023, and up 16.4% from 3,240 in the previous quarter. Overall, 78,420 households or 63.7% of households in temporary accommodation included dependent children, with 159,380 dependent children living in temporary accommodation.

Chart 4: Number of households in temporary accommodation by temporary accommodation and household type

Chart 4 shows the number of households in temporary accommodation by temporary accommodation and household type.

12. Accompanying tables

The live tables are available to download alongside this release. References to previously published tables are included where comparisons are possible.

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 *

• 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 *

• A12: Sexual Identity 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 duty outcomes

• P1: Reason for households’ prevention duty ending

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

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

• P4: Destination of households with alternative accommodation secured at end of prevention duty*

• P5: Household type of households with accommodation secured at end of prevention 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

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

* These tables will now only be published as part of the expanded annual release at end of financial year. The latest published figures can be found in the 2021-22 Detailed local authority level tables.

13. 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. A number of authorities have raised that not all cases of households with children in B&B for 6+ weeks were being accurately recorded. For example, multiple shorter placements in B&B were not correctly counted towards the 6 week total. These issues have now been resolved, meaning that there may be some small changes to these figures from April-June 2024. These figures should now more accurately reflect local authority records. ↩