National statistics

Statutory homelessness in England: July to September 2023

Updated 30 April 2024

Applies to England

This is the quarterly statistics release for statutory homelessness assessments and activities in England between 1 July and 30 September 2023. It also reports on stock households in temporary accommodation under the statutory homelessness duty in England on 30 September 2023.

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 info-graphic summarising the key headlines from this release. These publications are available on the statutory homelessness in England webpage.

1. In this release:

Between July to September 2023:

• 87,510 households had initial assessments made, up 12.2% from July to September 2022. This quarterly publication reflects the first time that we are reporting in total number of initial assessments the households who withdrew an application before assessment (4,820) and those that were not eligible or no longer eligible (690).  Some of the increase in assessments this quarter is due to us now including these new categories in our total figures. Without these, there has been a 5.2% increase in overall assessments compared to the same quarter last year.

• From these initial assessments, 78,460 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.

• 35,760 households were assessed as being threatened with homelessness, and therefore owed a prevention duty which is up 1.8% from the same quarter last year. This includes 6,580 households threatened with homelessness due to service of a Section 21 notice to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy – an increase of 3.1% from the same quarter last year.

• 42,690 households were initially assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty, up 8.7% from the same quarter last year. Households with children owed a relief duty increased 5.4% from the same quarter last year to 11,770 households in July to September 2023.

• 15,030 households were accepted as owed a main homelessness duty, up 16.3% from July to September 2022. This reflects the increase in households with children owed a relief duty this quarter (5.4%) and last quarter (10.8%) compared to the previous year.

• On 30 September 2023, 109,000 households were in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 10.3% from 30 September 2022. Households with children increased by 12.8% to 69,680, and single households increased by 6.0% to 39,320. Compared to the previous quarter, the overall number of households in temporary accommodation has increased by 3.0%.

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

Release date: 29 February 2024

Date of next release:  Spring 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 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 July to September 2023, 51,530 single households were owed a prevention or relief duty, up 7.6% from July to September 2022. The number of households with children owed a prevention or relief duty increased 1.5% from July to September 2022 to 26,900.

During this quarter, single households were more likely to have homeless applications taken when already homeless and so are owed a relief duty (60.0%), whereas households with children are more likely to have an application taken when threatened with homelessness (56.2%).

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 14,340 or 40.1% of households. This is a increase of 3.4% 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 or re-let the property (9,400 households). This quarter is the first time we have published separate breakdowns for end of AST due to landlord wishing to re-sell (6,700) versus landlord wishing to re-let the property (2,700).

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 increase in rent, which increased by 112.5% 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 represents a relatively small number of households (340 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 8,520 or 23.8% of households owed a prevention duty, down 4.2% from the same quarter last year.

Other notable changes in the reasons for threat of homelessness for households owed a prevention duty include:

• a decrease of 20.5% in those recorded as other or reasons not known to1,320 households

• a decrease of 17.7% in other violence or harassment to 510 households

• an increase of 109.1% to 920 households in those owed a prevention duty after being required to leave accommodation provided as asylum support

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 13,080 or 30.6% of households. An increase of 3.7% from the same quarter last year

• The second most common reason for those owed a relief duty was domestic abuse, accounting for 7,220 or 16.9% of households. An increase of 4.5% from the same quarter last year

Other notable changes in the reasons for homelessness for households owed a relief duty include:

• an increase of 203.8% to 2,370 households in those owed a relief duty after being required to leave accommodation provided as asylum support

• an increase of 22.1% of households departing from institutions to 2,210 households. This publication also marks the first release where we include breakdowns of those departing from different types of institutions (custody, hospital-psychiatric, hospital-general, and looked after child placements). These are available with the data tables accompanying the release.

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 (47.2%), up 4.1% from July to September 2022 to 16,890 households. For those owed a relief duty, those in the private rented sector at the time of application accounted for 14.3% of households, up 4.8% from the same period last year to 6,110 households.

The most common type of accommodation for households owed a relief duty was living with family (24.5%), which increased by 8.4% from July to September 2022 to 10,470 households. For those owed a prevention duty, the number of households living with family at the time of application decreased 3.2% from last year to 8,470 households.

The number of households owed a relief duty who were rough sleeping on approach increased by 5.2% from July to September 2022 to 4,040 households. Those reporting no fixed abode fell 7.9% to 4,980 households. This publication also marks the first release where we include breakdowns of the rough sleeping history of those with no fixed abode on approach (slept rough in the last year, previously slept rough, or never slept rough). More information can be found in the data tables published with this release.

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.

8.5% or 6,680 of the 78,460 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, 6,314 resulted in a homelessness duty. Most assessments as a result of referrals to homelessness services under the duty to refer, were made by criminal justice system organisations (2,920 households or 43.7% of total assessments from a duty to refer referral), an increase of 12.7% from July to September 2022.

Other notable changes in number of assessments due to referrals from public bodies since July to September 2022 include:

• an increase of 21.3% in assessments due to referrals from hospital A&E, urgent treatment centres or in-patient care, 910 households

• an increase of 28.6% in assessments due to referrals from mental health inpatient care, 360 households

• an increase of 66.7% in assessments due to referrals from other/not known bodies under the duty to refer, to 50 households

• an increase of 33.3% in assessments due to referrals from nil recourse teams , to 40 households

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, 42,860 or 54.6% 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 21,300 or 27.2% of households owed a homelessness duty. The second most common was for those with physical ill health and disability accounting for 15,110 or 19.3% of households owed a duty.

Other notable groups include:

• those at risk of or with experience of domestic abuse (12.2%)

• those with offending history (7.8%)

• those with a history of repeat homelessness (6.7%)

Age

Of households owed a prevention or relief duty in July to September 2023, those with a main applicant aged 16-17 fell by 5.1%  to 560 since the previous year. There were increases for main applicants in all other age groups. The largest increases were for the  households with lead applicants who were:

• age 75+ up 13.8% to 910 households

• 55-64 up 8.3% to 6,290 households

• 65-74 up 8.0% to 2,440 households

To note that households where the age of the lead applicant is not known has fallen 85.7% to 10 households from the previous year. This means that some of the increases in other categories are due to improved recording.

Ethnicity

The majority of households owed a prevention or relief duty were where the lead applicant was White (64.1%), followed by households where the lead applicant was Black (11.1%) or Asian (7.4%). The number of households owed a prevention or relief duty where the lead applicant was:

• Belonging to an Other ^{[footnote 1]} ethnic group increased by 46.7% to 3,800 households

• Asian increased by 23.8% to 5,780

• Black increased by 16.7% to 8,670

• Of Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups increased by 13.9% to 2,710

In contrast, compared to the previous year there was little change in the number of households where the main applicant was:

• White, an increase of 0.3% to 50,270 households
• Unknown ethnic group, an increase of 0.3% to 7,230 households

Employment Status

Employment status of the lead applicant for households owed a prevention or relief duty was most commonly registered unemployed, accounting for 33.8% or 26,500 households owed a duty.

The employment status that saw the largest increases in lead applicants of homelessness duty were those who were

• not registered but seeking work up 14.1% to 2,830 households

• students or in training up 12.1% to 1,110

• retired up 9.3% to 2,340

From this release we have now begun reporting on  several other employment status options. These are:

• Registered employed, but off work due to ill health/disability (1,350 households in July to September 2023)

• Registered employed, but off work on maternity/paternity/adoption leave (820 households)

• Working irregular hours (2,000 households)

The number of households where the lead applicant has an ‘Other’ or ‘Not known’ employment status have both decreased since July to September 2022. Households with main applicants recorded as having an Other employment status decreased by 57.5% to 2,400 households. Households where the main applicant’s employment status was Not Known fell by 19.6% to 3,150 households.

8. Outcomes

8.1 Tables P1 and R1

In July to September 2023, the prevention duty ended for 33,070 households, up 0.1% from the same quarter last year; and 46,290 households also saw their relief duty end, which is up 7.7% from the same quarter last year.

Over half of the prevention duties which ended between July to September 2023 (16,880 or 51.0%) ended because the household secured accommodation for 6 months or more and their homelessness had been prevented, down 1.2 percentage points from last year. Of those households who secured accommodation at the end of their prevention duty, 5,560 or 32.9%, were able to remain in their existing home, up 0.5 percentage points from this time last year.

25.7% or 8,500 households’ prevention duty ended with the household becoming homeless and were subsequently owed the relief duty, up 2.0 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

Of the 46,290 relief duties ended this quarter, 15,570 or 33.6% of households had accommodation secured for at least 6 months, down 2.3 percentage points from the same quarter last year. Of these, 74.1% (11,530) were single households, up 0.3 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

Conversely 21,610 or 46.6% households’ relief duty ended because their homelessness had not been relieved within 56 days, meaning their local authority  needed to assess whether a main duty was owed, this is up 3.1 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 July to September 2023, local authorities made 21,130 main duty decisions for eligible households.

• 15,030 main duties were accepted, as the household was judged to be homeless, with priority need, and unintentionally homeless. This is a 16.3% increase in absolute number of households with a main duty accepted compared to July to September 2022. Main duties accepted represented 71.1% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This proportion is largely the same compared to the same quarter last year (0.7 percentage point decrease).

• 890 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 a 14.1% absolute increase in number of households compared to July to September in 2022. These decisions represented 4.2% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This proportion is largely the same compared to the same quarter last year (0.1 percentage point decrease).

• 4,930 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as homeless but with no priority need. This is a 24.8% absolute increase in number of households compared to July to September in 2022. These decisions represented 23.3% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is a 1.4 percentage point increase, reflecting that a higher proportion of households are being assessed as homeless with no priority need compared to the same period last year.

• 280 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as not homeless. This is a 15.2% absolute decrease in number of households compared to July to September in 2022. These decisions represented 1.3% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This proportion is largely the same compared to the same quarter last year (0.5 percentage point decrease).

Other points to note:

• The number of households with children owed a main duty increased by 12.2% from the same quarter last year to 7,960 households. This reflects the increase in households with children owed a prevention (2.8%) or relief duty (7.9%) in April to September 2023, 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 37.3% to 1,140 from July to September 2022, 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 Q3 2022 and Q3 2023.

In July to September 2023, 11,110  households had their main homelessness duty come to an end, up 22.5% from July to September 2022. 8,920  of these households accepted an offer of settled accommodation. This is a 27.4% absolute increase in number of households from the same quarter last year. Households accepting an accommodation offer represented 80.3% of all main duties ending in the quarter. This is a 3.1 percentage point increase, reflecting that a higher proportion of households are securing settled accommodation at the end of a main duty compared to the same period last year.

Note: Our imputation and weighting process is designed to provide a more accurate estimate for England and regional totals when data from some local authorities are missing. Specific patterns of missing data among groups of local authorities can affect how well this process is likely to work. In this quarter, high levels of missing data for main duty decisions and outcomes mean that estimates for these totals for England and some regions may be more variable compared to true values.  More information on our imputation and weighting process is available in the technical note

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.

109,000 households were in temporary accommodation on 30 September 2023, up 3.0% from the previous quarter and up 10.3% from the same time last year. The number of single households in temporary accommodation rose 4.3% from the previous quarter and 6.0% from the same time last year to 39,320. Households with children increased 2.2% from the previous quarter and increased 12.8% from the same time last year to 69,680.

On 30 September 2023, there were 17.0 households living in temporary accommodation per 1,000 households in London, compared with 2.3 households per 1,000 in the Rest of England. Newham London Borough had the highest rate of temporary accommodation in London with 51.4 households per 1,000 households.

Brighton and Hove had the highest rate outside London with 12.9 households per 1,000 households.

31,130 or 28.6% of households in temporary accommodation were in accommodation in a different local authority district. 78.5% 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, 14,880 were living in bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation, up 30.0% from the same time last year. Of these households in B&B, 10,200 (68.5%) were single households, up 18.3% from the same time last year. The number of households in B&B with dependent children increased 65.4% to 4,680 households on 30 September 2023.

Of the households with children in B&B, 2,680 had been resident for more than the statutory limit of 6 weeks. This is up 121.5% from 1,210 on 30 September 2022, and up 6.8% from 2,510 in the previous quarter.

Overall, 69,680 households or 63.9% of households in temporary accommodation included dependent children, with 142,490 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 DLUHC 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 DLUHC 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 July and 30 September 2023.

• 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 and official accredited statistics is also available on the UK Statistics Authority and Statistics at DLUHC website.

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 ^{[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 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 ^{[footnote 2]}

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

Statutory homelessness relief duty outcomes

• R1: Reason for households’ relief  duty ending

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

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

• R5: Household type of households with accommodation secured at end of relief 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

15. Technical information

Please see the technical notes for further details on the data used for this release. Further information about official accredited statistics and official statistics is also available on the UK Statistics Authority and Statistics at DLUHC 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 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. ↩ ↩² ↩³