Accredited official statistics

Statutory homelessness in England: January to March 2024

Published 8 August 2024

Applies to England

This is the quarterly statistics release for statutory homelessness assessments and activities in England between 1 January and 31 March 2024. It also reports on stock households in temporary accommodation under the statutory homelessness duty in England on 31 March 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 an infographic summarising the key headlines from this release. These publications are available on the statutory homelessness in England webpage.

1. In this release:

Between January to March 2024:

• 94,560 households had initial assessments, up 10.8% from January to March 2023. Our quarterly publication now includes the households who withdrew an application before assessment (3,330) and those that were not eligible or no longer eligible (710) in total number of initial assessments. Some of the increase in assessments compared to the same quarter last year is these new categories now being included in our total figures. Without these, there has been a 6.1% increase in overall assessments compared to the same quarter last year.
• From these initial assessments, 86,520 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.
• 38,440 households were assessed as being threatened with homelessness, and therefore owed a prevention duty which is down 0.6% from the same quarter last year. This includes 6,630 households threatened with homelessness due to service of a Section 21 notice to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy – an increase of 1.2% from the same quarter last year.
• 48,080 households were initially assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty, up 11.4% from the same quarter last year. Households with children owed a relief duty increased 6.9% from the same quarter last year to 12,370 households in January to March 2024.
• 17,120 households were accepted as owed a main homelessness duty, up 19.8% from January to March 2023. This reflects the increase in households with children owed a relief duty this quarter (6.9%) and last quarter (11.9%) compared to previous year.
• On 31 March 2024, 117,450 households were in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 12.3% from 31 March 2023. Households with children increased by 14.7% to 74,530, and single households increased by 8.5% to 42,920. Compared to the previous quarter, the number of households in temporary accommodation had increased by 4.3%.

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

Release date: 8 August 2024

Date of next release: Autumn 2024

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

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

2. 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.

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

3. Household composition

3.1 Tables A5P and A5R

Single households: A term used for households without children, which will include couples and households with 2 or more adults.

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

In January to March 2024, 57,460 single households were owed a prevention or relief duty, up 7.5% from January to March 2023. The number of households with children owed a prevention or relief duty increased 0.6% from January to March 2023 to 28,560.

During this quarter, single households were more likely to have homeless applications taken when already homeless and so are owed a relief duty (61.8%), whereas households with children are more likely to have an application taken when threatened with homelessness (56.7%).

4. Reasons for homelessness

4.1 Tables A2P and A2R

End of private rented Assured Shorthold Tenancy was the most common reason for households being owed a prevention duty, accounting for 14,570 or 37.9% of households. This is a decrease of 1.6% 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 the property (6,700), followed by landlord wishing to re-let the property (2,670).

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 an increase in rent, which rose by 27.6% from the same quarter last year. Despite the large relative increase, end of AST from rent arrears due to an increase in rent, still only represent a relatively small number of households (370 households).

The second most common reason for those owed a prevention duty was family or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate, accounting for 8,790 or 22.9% of households owed a prevention duty, down 9.8% from the same quarter last year.

Other notable change(s) for households owed a prevention duty include:

• an increase of 108.2% in requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support to 1,270 households
• an increase of 48.6% in departure from institution with no accommodation available to 1,040 households
• a decrease of 34.5% in other violence or harassment to 380 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 13,900 or 28.9% of households owed a relief duty, down 0.8% from the same quarter last year. The second most common reason for those owed a relief duty was Households owed a relief duty due to domestic abuse, accounting for 6,980 or 14.5% of households owed a relief duty. This had decreased 1.7% from the same quarter last year.

Other notable change(s) from the same quarter last year for households owed a relief duty were:

• an increase of 348.1% in requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support to 4,840 households
• an increase of 23.0% in departure from institution with no accommodation available to 2,670 households
• a decrease of 16.4% in other violence or harassment to 1,330 households.

5. Current accommodation

5.1 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 (45.5%), down 2.0% from January to March 2023 to 17,480 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 13.2% of households, down 3.5% from the same quarter last year to 6,350 households.

The most common type of accommodation for households owed a relief duty was living with family (22.6%), which fell by 0.5% from January to March 2023 to 10,860 households. For those owed a prevention duty, households living with family at the time of application had decreased 1.0% to 9,180 households.

The number of households owed a relief duty who were rough sleeping on approach increased by 23.0% from January to March 2023 to 4,760 households, while those reporting no fixed abode rose 0.2% to 5,660 households.

It is worth noting that the percentage reported as ‘Other/not known’ accommodation at the time of application has risen by 58.3% for prevention duties and risen by 73.5% for relief duties.

6. Duty to refer

6.1 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.

7.8% or 7,420 of the 94,560 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. The largest number of assessments made under duty to refer resulted from referrals by Criminal Justice System Agencies, with 3,320 such assessments (44.7% of total assessments from a duty to refer referral), an increase of 10.3% from January to March 2023.

7. Other demographics

7.1 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.

Support Needs

Of all households owed either a prevention or relief duty, 46,430 or 53.7% 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 22,500 or 26.0% of households owed a homelessness duty. The second most common was for those with physical ill health and disability accounting for 16,580 or 19.2% of households owed a duty. Other notable groups include those at risk of or with experience of domestic abuse (11.1%), those with offending history (7.9%), those with a history of repeat homelessness (6.5%) and those with learning disability (5.9%).

Age

The overall increase in the number of households owed a prevention or relief duty in January to March 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 65-74 up 9.8% to 2,700, 55-64 up 7.8% to 7,050 and 75+ up 5.3% to 990. On the other hand, those aged 16-17 fell by 15.5% respectively.

Ethnicity

The majority of households owed a prevention or relief duty were where the lead applicant was White (61.0%), 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 / Asian British increased by 31.6% to 6,620 households
• Black / African / Caribbean / black British increased by 16.3% to 9,470
• of mixed / multiple ethnic groups increased by 18.7% to 3,110
• White fell by 4.1% to 53,140
• from an other ethnic group ^{[footnote 1]} increased by 74.3% to 5,630
• of  an unknown ethnic group increased by 15.4% to 8,550

Employment Status

The employment status that saw the largest increases in lead applicants who were:

• not registered but seeking work up 14.2% to 3,290 households
• registered unemployed up 11.4% to 31,210
• retired up 8.7% to 2,620
• not working due to long-term illness/disability up 6.3% to 12,010
• students or in training up 4.9% to 1,280
• in part-time work up 1.2% to 8,670

Whilst those who were in full-time work fell 1.6% to 11,210 and those not seeking work / at home fell 0.9% to 5,550.

We have now begun reporting on several other employment status options. These are:

• Registered employed, but off work due to ill health/disability (1,340 households)
• Registered employed, but off work on maternity/paternity/adoption leave (810)
• Working irregular hours (1,910)

Those with an ‘Other’ employment status classification fell by 58.5% to 2,770, while lead applicants where employment status was ‘Not known’ increased by 2.4% to 3,860.

8. Outcomes

8.1 Tables P1 and R1

In January to March 2024, the prevention duty ended for 34,550 households, up 3.8% from the same quarter last year; and 53,210 households also saw their relief duty end, which is up 14.2% from the same quarter last year.

Over half of the prevention duties which ended between January to March 2024 (17,720 or 51.3%) ended because the household secured accommodation for 6 months or more and their homelessness had been prevented, the same proportion compared to last year. Of these households who secured accommodation at the end of their prevention duty, 6,560 or 37.0%, were able to remain in their existing home, up 2 percentage points from this time last year. This outcome was followed by 9,080 or 26.3% of households whose prevention duty ended and were homeless at the end of the prevention duty and were subsequently owed relief duty, up 0.2 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

Of the 53,210 relief duties ended this quarter, 16,160 or 30.4% of households had accommodation secured for at least 6 months, down 4.1 percentage points from the same quarter last year. Of households that had their duties end successfully, 75.4% (12,180) were single households, up 1.6 percentage points from the same quarter last year.  27,090 households, or 50.9% of households whose relief duty ended, had their duty end 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 5.3 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

9. Main homelessness duty

9.1 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 main duty  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 January to March 2024, local authorities made 26,210 main duty decisions for eligible households.

• 17,120 main duties were accepted, as the household was judged to be homeless, with priority need, and unintentionally homeless. This is an increase of 19.8% in the absolute number of households with a main duty accepted compared to January to March 2023. Main duties accepted represented 65.3% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is down 3.5 percentage points reflecting that a lower proportion of households are being accepted as owed a main duty compared to the same period last year.
• 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 8.4% in the absolute number of households compared to January to March 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 0.6 percentage points).
• 7,780 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as homeless but with no priority need. This is a an increase of 49.6% in the absolute number of households compared to January to March 2023. These decisions represented 29.7% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is up 4.6 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.
• 270 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as not homeless. This is an a decrease of 12.9% in the absolute number of households compared to January to March 2023. These decisions represented 1.0% 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 15.5% from the same quarter last year to 8,770 households. This reflects the increase in households with children owed a relief duty (9.3%) in October 2023 to March 2024 compared to the same two quarters in the previous year.

• The number of households owed a main duty who were homeless and have priority need due to domestic abuse had increased by 22.3% to 1,260 from January to March 2023, reflecting an increase in households who were homeless or threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse over the last year.

Chart 2 shows the number of households by outcome of main duty assessment for Q4 2022 and Q1 2024.

In January to March 2024, 11,470 households had their main homelessness duty come to an end, up 12.6% from January to March 2023. Of these households, 9,080 households accepted an offer of settled accommodation, up 12.1% from the same quarter last year. Households accepting an accommodation offer represented 79.2% of all main duties ending in the quarter. This is down 0.3 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.

10. Temporary accommodation

10.1 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.

117,450 households were in temporary accommodation on 31 March 2024, up 4.3% from the previous quarter and up 12.3% from the same time last year. The number of single households in temporary accommodation rose 3.8% from the previous quarter and rose 8.5% from the same time last year to 42,920. Households with children increased 4.6% from the previous quarter and increased 14.7% from 31 March 2023 to 74,530.

On 31 March 2024, there were 17.8 households living in temporary accommodation per 1,000 households in London, compared with 2.5 households per 1,000 in the Rest of England. Newham London Borough had the highest rate of temporary accommodation in London with 53.1 households per 1,000 households. Slough Borough Council had the highest rate outside London with 18.2 households per 1,000 households.

36,360 or 31.0% of households in temporary accommodation were in accommodation in a different local authority district. 78.9% of these out of district placements were from London authorities.

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, 17,750 were living in bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation, up 30.0% from the same time last year. Of these households in B&B, 12,200 (68.7%) were single households, up 24.5% from the same time last year. The number of households in B&B with dependent children increased 44.2% to 5,550 households in 31 March 2024. Of the households with children in B&B, 3,250 had been resident for more than the statutory limit of 6 weeks. This is up 79.6% from 1,810 on 31 March 2023, and up 9.8% from 2,960 in the previous quarter. Overall, 74,530 households or 63.5% of households in temporary accommodation included dependent children, with 151,630 dependent children living in temporary accommodation.

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

11. Assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

Between October and December 2021, these Statutory Homelessness statistics underwent an assessment by the Office for Statistics Regulation. A report detailing the findings of this assessment was published in December 2021.

The Homelessness Statistics Team in MHCLG developed an action plan detailing how and when the requirements identified in the assessment report would be met.

These statistics have now 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 (see confirmation of accreditation). 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.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

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.

12. Notes on usage

• 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 January and 31 March 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 the Department’s statistics page.

13. 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

14. 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 assess 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 2022-23 Detailed local authority level tables.

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 Department’s statistics page.

1. Other ethnic group is defined as Arab or any other ethnic group that is not white, Asian, black or mixed ethnic group. ↩