You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Households owed main homelessness duty up 15.9%
The number of households owed a main homelessness duty by councils has increased by 15.9% in a year to 18,000, according to the government’s latest statistics.
The new figures, covering the period from April to June 2024, also showed that councils reported carrying out initial assessments for 90,990 households, up 10.3% compared with the same quarter last year.
From those initial assessments, 83,240 were assessed were owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness.
Of the 37,250 households initially assessed as being threatened with homelessness and therefore owed a prevention duty, 7,040 were threatened with homelessness due to being served a Section 21 no-fault notice.
This represents an increase of 2.6% from the same quarter last year.
READ MORE
The government has pledged to ban no-fault evictions as part of its Renters’ Rights Bill, due to become law in spring 2025.
The previous government also promised to ban Section 21 evictions, but failed in the six years following the first time it made the pledge in 2018.
The statistics showed that 45,980 households were initially assessed as homeless and owed a relief duty, up 13.8% from the same quarter last year.
It comes after it emerged last week that the number of households living in temporary accommodation rose by more than 17,000 in a year, or 16.3%, to 123,100 on 30 June 2024.
Households with children in temporary accommodation increased by 15.1% to 78,420, and single households increased by 18.5% to 44,680.
Compared with the previous quarter, the number of households in temporary accommodation increased by 4.9%.
Rushanara Ali, minister for homelessness, said it is a “scandal that so many children are waking up in temporary accommodation” .
The government has “inherited the consequences of years of failure to grip the housing crisis with families facing the brutal uncertainty and trauma of homelessness”, she added.
Ms Ali said: “We are taking decisive action to get the homes we need built and our dedicated inter-ministerial group, led by the deputy prime minister, is working at pace across government to get us back on track to end homelessness for good.
“We have already announced extra funding to bring support for homelessness services to £1bn next year.
“But we will also deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable house building in a generation and tackle one of the biggest drivers of homelessness by ending no-fault evictions.”
The government is working on a long-term housing strategy, set to be published next year.
Inside Housing and the National Housing Federation’s Plan for Housing campaign sets out what should be included in the strategy.
Sign up for our homelessness bulletin
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
