Accredited official statistics

Statutory homelessness in England: October to December 2024

Published 30 April 2025

Applies to England

1. Main Findings

At the beginning of 2024, the number of households owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness reached record levels. This has been reducing, in each quarter since.

Of those households owed a duty to prevent homelessness, the proportion securing accommodation has increased for three consecutive quarters, and is now higher than it has been since April to June 2022.

The proportion of relief duties ending where the household has been able to secure accommodation has increased since last quarter but is still lower compared to the same period in previous years.

The number of families in temporary accommodation continues to rise and is at record levels, but the number of these families in B&Bs has been falling for the last three quarters, as has the number of families in B&B over the statutory 6-week limit.

In October to December 2024:

• 83,800 households were initially assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness and owed a statutory homelessness duty, down 7.7% from the same quarter last year (October to December 2023). From these initial assessments, 76,820 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.
• 34,010 households were initially assessed as being threatened with homelessness, and therefore owed a prevention duty which is down 2.7% from the same quarter last year. This includes 5,820 households threatened with homelessness due to service of a Section 21 notice to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy – a decrease of 1.4% from the same quarter last year.
• 42,810 households were initially assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty, down 6.6% from the same quarter last year. Households with children owed a relief duty decreased 8.6% from the same quarter last year to 10,570 households in October to December 2024.
• 17,690 households were accepted as owed a main homelessness duty, up 9.3% compared to October to December 2023.
• On 31 December 2024, 127,890 households were in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 13.6% from 31 December 2023. Households with children increased by 13.7% to 81,060, and adult only households increased by 13.3% to 46,830.

2. About our statistics

This is the quarterly statistics release for statutory homelessness assessments and activities in England between 1 October and 31 December 2024, and households in temporary accommodation under the statutory homelessness duty in England on 31 December 2024. Statutory homelessness concerns duties placed on local authorities to take reasonable steps to prevent and relieve homelessness to eligible houses.

Short definitions for technical terms can be found in the glossary section of this release. The full definitions are provided in the Technical note.

2.1 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 before 2018 recorded via the P1E collection.

3. Statutory homelessness initial assessments and outcomes

3.1 Initial Assessments

At the beginning of 2024, the number of households owed support to prevent or relieve homelessness reached record levels. This has been reducing, in each quarter since.

Chart 1: Number of households owed a prevention or relief duty, April to June 2019 to October to December 2024

83,800 households were initially assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness and owed a statutory homelessness duty, down 7.7% from October to December 2023. From these initial assessments, 76,820 were assessed as owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.

The number of households assessed as at risk of becoming homelessness, and therefore owed a prevention duty is down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year to 34,010. This includes 5,820 households threatened with homelessness due to service of a Section 21 notice to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy – a decrease of 1.4% from the same quarter last year.

42,810 households were initially assessed as homeless and therefore owed a relief duty, down 6.6% from the same quarter last year. Households with children owed a relief duty decreased 8.6% from the same quarter last year to 10,570 households in October to December 2024.

4. Prevention Duty Outcomes

Over half of prevention duties ending in October to December 2024 ended with homelessness being prevented, a proportion higher than it has been since April to June 2022.

Chart 2: Percentage of households for which prevention or relief duty ended by outcome in October to December 2024 compared to October to December 2023

In October to December 2024, prevention duty ended for 35,110 households, up 3.5% from the same quarter last year. 18,890 or 53.8% of prevention duties ended this quarter because the household secured accommodation for six months or more and their homelessness had been prevented. This is a higher proportion compared to last year (up 2.0 percentage points).

Prevention activity e.g. negotiation work to allow the household to remain in their existing accommodation, or help with financial payments to reduce arrears, resulted in 6,940 households being able to remain in their existing home. This is 36.7% of those securing accommodation for six or more months, up 2.2 percentage points from this time last year.

Just under a quarter (23.9% or 8400) of households whose prevention duty ended were homeless at the end of the prevention duty and were subsequently owed relief duty. This is down 1.5 percentage points compared to the same quarter last year.

5. Relief Duty Outcomes

The proportion of relief duties ending with secured accommodation has increased since last quarter, with these households making up just under a third of those whose relief duties ended. This proportion is still lower compared to the same period in previous years.

In October to December 2024, relief duties ended for 53,890 households, up 6.3% from the same quarter last year. 27,120 or 50.3% of households had their relief 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 be owed, up 2.2 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

This outcome was followed by 17,300 or 32.1% of households whose relief duty ended because they had secured accommodation for at least 6 months, down 0.9 percentage points from the same quarter last year. Of these, 74.7% (12,930) were adult only households, up 1.4 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

6. Main Duty Decisions and Outcomes

6.1 Main Duty Decisions

The number of households owed a main duty decision has increased since October to December 2023, meaning the absolute numbers of households receiving each decision has increased. The proportion of households who were assessed as owed a main duty has fallen as more households are being assessed as homeless but without priority need compared to the same period last year.

Chart 3: Number of households by decision of main duty assessment in October to December 2024 compared to October to December 2023

In October to December 2024, local authorities made 26,260 main duty decisions for eligible households:

• For two thirds of decisions (17,690 households), main duties were accepted, as the household was judged to be homeless, with priority need, and unintentionally homeless. This represents a lower proportion of decisions  than in October to December 2023 (down 1.6 percentage points).
• 1,160 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. The proportion of decisions these represented is largely the same compared to the same quarter last year (4.4%, up 0.2 percentage points).
• 7,200 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as homeless but with no priority need, representing 27.4% of all main duty decisions in the quarter. This is up 1.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
• 210 were not owed a main duty as the household was assessed as not homeless, representing 0.8% of all decisions.

The number of households with children owed a main duty increased by 10.2% from the same quarter last year to 9,330 households.

The number of households owed a main duty who were homeless and have priority need due to domestic abuse had increased by 6.3% to 1,350 from October to December 2023, reflecting an increase in households who were homeless or threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse over the last year.

6.2 Main Duty Outcomes

The number of households whose main duty ended in October to December 2024 increased by a fifth compared to the same quarter last year. Those who secured settled accommodation accounted for a similar proportion compared to the same quarter last year.

In October to December 2024, 13,510 households had their main homelessness duty come to an end, up 20.3% from October to December 2023. Of these households, 10,730 households accepted an offer of settled accommodation, up 19.8% from the same quarter last year. Households accepting an accommodation offer represented 79.4% of all main duties ending in the quarter, down 0.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

7. Temporary Accommodation

The number of families in temporary accommodation continues to rise and is at record levels, but the number of these families in B&Bs has been falling for the last three quarters, as has the number of families in B&B over the statutory 6-week limit.

127,890 households were in temporary accommodation on 31 December 2024, up 1.5% from the previous quarter and up 13.6% from the same time last year.

The number of adult only households in temporary accommodation rose 3.0% from the previous quarter and rose 13.3% from the same time last year to 46,830.

Overall, 81,060 households or 63.3% of households in temporary accommodation included dependent children, with 165,510 dependent children living in temporary accommodation. Households with children increased 0.7% from the previous quarter and increased 13.7% from 31 December 2023.

Chart 4: Number of households in temporary accommodation on 30 June 2019 to 31 December 2024, by household composition

On 31 December 2024, there were 19.7 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 58 households per 1,000 households.

Slough Borough Council had the highest rate outside London with 20.7 households per 1,000 households.

Map 1: The number of households in temporary accommodation per thousand households across England. This map shows that the highest rates of temporary accommodation are typically in London and other urban hotspots.

7.1 Types of temporary accommodation

Chart 5: Number of households in temporary accommodation on 31 December 2024 by temporary accommodation type and household composition

Of the households in temporary accommodation on 31 December 2024, 16,390 were living in bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation, up 2.8% from the same time last year. These accounted for 12.8% of all households in temporary accommodation, down 1.3 percentage points. Of these households in B&B, the number of adult only households increased by 5.9% to 12,060, accounting for 73.6% of households in B&B. The number of households in B&B with dependent children decreased 5.0% from the same time last year to 4,330, accounting for a 2.2 percentage point lower proportion of households in B&B.

Chart 6: Number of households with children in B&B temporary accommodation on 30 June 2019 to 31 December 2024

3,110 households with children in B&B accommodation had been resident for more than the statutory limit of 6 weeks. This is up 5.1% from 2,960 on 31 December 2023, but down 10.4% from 3,470 on 30 September 2024.

7.2 Additional data published on temporary accommodation

This quarter we have introduced additional tables on temporary accommodation to our quarterly release based on feedback from our users on the importance of this data.

This includes this includes tables which have been produced previously in our financial year publications, but have not been released with each quarterly publication so far. These are:

• TA4 - Number of households by type of temporary accommodation provided and length of time
• TA4c - Number of households with children by type of temporary accommodation provided and length of time
• TA4s – Number of adult only households by type of temporary accommodation provided and length of time
• TA7 - Average length of stay in temporary accommodation by type of temporary accommodation
• TA8 - Number of under 18’s in temporary accommodation by age in English local authorities

Length of time in temporary accommodation

Data on the length of time households spend in temporary accommodation show there are differences between households with and without children in duration and type of temporary accommodation placements.

The most common length of time for households with children to have spent in temporary accommodation is 5+ years (18,200 households or 22.5%). Of these 48.1% were in private sector accommodation.

The most common length of time for adult only households to remain in temporary accommodation is less than 6 months ( 16,280 households or 34.8%). Of these 43.0% were in bed and breakfast accommodation.

8. Causes and circumstances of homelessness

Chart 7: Percentage of households owed a prevention or relief duty by their reason for loss of last settled home in October to December 2024 compared to October to December 2023

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

In October to December 2024, households owed a prevention duty were most likely to be living in the private rented sector at the time of approach and receiving support to prevent homelessness due to the end of a private rented Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST), the same as for all quarters since July to September 2021.

In October to December 2024, ‘end of private rented Assured Shorthold Tenancy’ (AST) accounted for 12,430 or 36.5% of households owed a prevention duty, a lower proportion than for the previous four quarters.

The most common recorded reasons households were owed a prevention duty due to the end of an AST were: ‘landlord wishing to sell the property’ (5,480) and ‘landlord wishing to relet the property’ (2,280). There was also a notable number of households owed prevention duty whose AST was ending due to ‘other reasons/not known’ (2,360), which may include categories not currently captured in our collection.

Of those households owed a prevention duty due to the end of an AST, the reason that saw the largest increase from the same quarter last year was rent arrears from changes in benefit entitlement, which increased by 46.2%, however this still represents a relatively small number of households (190 or 1.5% of all households owed a prevention duty due to the end of an AST).

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 8,080 or 23.8% of households owed a prevention duty, up 3.2% from the same quarter last year.

Other notable changes for households owed a prevention duty compared to the same quarter last year include an increase of 75.0% in ‘departure from looked after child placement’ to 280 households, a decrease of 40.0% in ‘departure from general hospital’ to 30 households and a decrease of 25.7% in ‘requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support’ to 1,390 households. However, there has been a 120.6% increase in households owed prevention duty due to having to leave asylum support accommodation compared to July to September 2024.

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

Households receiving support to relieve homelessness in October to December 2024 were most likely to be homeless as family or friends were no longer willing or able to accommodate them.

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 12,340 or 28.8% of households owed a relief duty, up 0.9 percentage points 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 6,630 or 15.5% of households owed a relief duty, 1.1 percentage points higher than the same quarter last year.

There was a 32.1% decrease in households owed relief duty due to ‘requirement to leave accommodation provided by the Home Office as asylum support’ compared to October to December 2023 to 3,590 households. However, as with prevention duty, this was a 76.0% increase since July to September 2024.

Other notable changes from the same quarter last year in reasons why households were owed a relief duty included a decrease of 18.2% in ‘end of non-assured shorthold private rented tenancy’ to 1,210 households and a decrease of 17.4% in ‘other violence or harassment’ to 1,140 households.

9. Current accommodation

Households owed prevention duty were most likely to be in the private rented sector at the time of approach. Of those initially assessed as homeless and thus owed relief duty, households were most likely to be living with family.

Chart 8: Percentage of households owed a prevention or relief duty by their accommodation at the time of approach in October to December 2024 compared to October to December 2023

The most common type of accommodation at the time of application for those owed a prevention duty was in the private rented sector (43.3%). This is a slightly lower proportion than in October to December 2023 (down 1.0 percentage points). This is consistent with the reasons for threat of homelessness for those owed prevention duties (described above).

The most common type of accommodation for households owed a relief duty was living with family (22.7%), which fell by 1.5% from October to December 2023 to 9,710 households.

The number of households owed a relief duty who were ‘rough sleeping’ on approach fell by 2.2% from October to December 2023 to 4,520 households, while those reporting ‘no fixed abode’ rose 1.6% to 5,180 households.

The percentage reported as ‘Other/ not known’ accommodation at the time of application has reduced by 3.0% for prevention duties and reduced by 1.9% for relief duties.

10. Duty to Refer

8.8% or 7,400 of the 83,800 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, 92.4% 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 3,320 assessments (44.9% of total assessments from a duty to refer referral), an increase of 4.1% from October to December 2023.

11. Demographics

For those owed a prevention or relief duty this quarter, the most common characteristics for households were those which were adult-only, with lead applicants that were aged 25-34, White and registered unemployed. The majority of households have at least one identified support need, the most common being a history of mental health problems.

11.1 Household composition

During this quarter, adult only households were more likely to approach the local authority when already homeless and so be owed a relief duty (61.1%), whereas households with children are more likely to approach when threatened with homelessness (56.0%).

In October to December 2024, 52,710 adult only households were owed a prevention or relief duty, down 3.9% from October to December 2023. The number of households with children owed a prevention or relief duty decreased 7.3% from October to December 2023 to 24,030.

11.2 Age of Lead Applicants

For households owed a prevention or relief duty the most common age of lead applicants was 25-34 accounting for 28.7% or 22,080 households owed a duty in October to December 2024.

Chart 9: The percentage of households owed a prevention or relief duty by age group in October to December 2024 compared to October to December 2023

The only increase was for age groups 65-74 up 0.8% to 2,530. On the other hand, the number of main applicants aged 16-17, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54 and 55-64 fell by 12.2%, 4.6%, 7.9%, 5.6%, 2.2% and 0.6% compared to the same time last year.

11.3 Ethnicity of Lead Applicants

Chart 10: The percentage of households owed a prevention or relief duty by ethnicity in October to December 2024 compared to October to December 2023

The majority of households owed a prevention or relief duty were where the lead applicant was White (60.0%), followed by households where the lead applicant was Black (13.0%) or Asian (9.0%).

The number of households owed a prevention or relief duty where the lead applicant was Black increased by 5.0%, Asian increased by 3.6%, Mixed fell by 3.3% and White fell by 3.6%.

11.4 Employment Status of Lead Applicants

Chart 11: The percentage of households owed a prevention or relief duty by the top 6 employment status categories in October to December 2024 compared to October to December 2023

The most common employment status of lead applicants for households owed prevention or relief duties was ‘registered unemployed’, accounting for 36.6% or 28,080 households in October to December 2024.

Lead applicants who were not working due to long-term illness/disability increased 1.9% to 11,270 compared to the previous year. Whilst those who were working irregular hours fell 11.2% to 1,750, not registered but seeking work fell 9.9% to 3,020 and registered employed, but off work fell 9.3% to 1,850.

11.5 Household Support Needs

Chart 12: The percentage of households owed a prevention or relief duty by the top 6 support needs of households in October to December 2024 compared to October to December 2023

Of all households owed either a prevention or relief duty, 44,480 or 57.9% 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 21,340 or 27.8% of households owed a homelessness duty. The second most common was for those with physical ill health and disability accounting for 16,450 or 21.4% of households owed a duty.

Notable changes this quarter include among households with support needs due to: care leavers aged 25+, up 27.3% from the same quarter last year to 560 households (0.7% of all households), and those at risk of or with experience of sexual abuse or exploitation, up 8.2% from the same quarter last year to 1970 households (2.6%).

12. Glossary

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Single households: A term previously used to describe households without children, which will include couples and households with two or more adults. Now referred to as adult only households in this release.

Single adult households: Single adult households are a subset of single households, where the household comprises just one individual adult. Now referred to as one adult households in this release.

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.

13. Technical information

This release reports on data that 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 an aggregate 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.

13.1 Our published outputs

On the Statutory homelessness in England: October to December 2024 Release - GOV.UK, we also publish:

• 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

13.2 Assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

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.

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

14. Release information and contact

Release date: 30 April 2025 

Date of next release: Summer 2025 

Contact: 0303 444 8433 / homelessnessstats@communities.gov.uk (Responsible Statistician: Madeha Asim)
Media enquiries: 0303 444 1209 / NewsDesk@communities.gov.uk

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