Homeless households
Services for the homeless
Local authorities have a duty to help homeless people who fit certain criteria, and those who may be about to become homeless. Anyone requiring information on services for the homeless should use the appropriate unitary authority, district council or voluntary organisation links in the related information panel.
Households assessed and owed a duty
Relief duty (RDO)
The c3,198 households assessed as homeless and owed a relief duty in Lancashire-12 was c1.8% of the England figure of 178,560. The rate of RDO households per 1,000 (6.3) was lower than in England (7.4). Preston had the highest 'homeless and owed a relief duty' figure in the Lancashire-12 area, with Lancaster close behind. Ribble Valley Borough Council failed to submit data for one quarter, but had the lowest number of duties owed in Lancashire.
Prevention duty (PDO)
There were c3,062 households threatened with homelessness and owed a prevention duty in 2023/24, which was c2.1% of the England total (146,430). There were 503 such households in Rossendale, giving a rate of 15.7 per 1,000 households. This was the fifth highest rate in England. The PDO rate in Lancashire-12 (6.1) was the same as in England.
Total of households owed either duty
Combining the number of households owed a relief or prevention duty gives a total of c6,260 households, c1.7% of the England total of 358,370.
Table 1: Households assessed as homeless or as at risk of homelessness and a duty owed, April 2023 to March 2024
| Area | Homeless households – relief duty owed (RDO) |
Households assessed as homeless per (000s) |
Households threatened with homelessness within 56 days – prevention duty owed (PDO) | Households assessed as threatened with homelessness per (000s) |
Total Households owed a prevention or relief duty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnley | 442 | 11.3 | 322 | 8.2 | 764 |
| Chorley | 250 | 4.7 | 222 | 4.2 | 472 |
| Fylde | 200 | 4.9 | 98 | 2.4 | 298 |
| Hyndburn | 236 | 6.6 | 179 | 5.0 | 415 |
| Lancaster | 536 | 8.7 | 394 | 6.4 | 930 |
| Pendle | 119 | 3.0 | 327 | 8.2 | 446 |
| Preston | 569 | 9.7 | 455 | 7.7 | 1,024 |
| Ribble Valley(3) | 47 | 0.6 | 23 | 0.3 | 70 |
| Rossendale | 73 | 2.3 | 503 | 15.7 | 576 |
| South Ribble | 360 | 7.4 | 167 | 3.4 | 527 |
| West Lancashire | 243 | 5.2 | 55 | 1.2 | 298 |
| Wyre | 123 | 2.4 | 317 | 6.1 | 440 |
| Lancashire-12┼ | c3,198 | 6.3 | c3,062 | 6.1 | c6,260 |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 607 | 10.47 | 493 | 8.5 | 1,100 |
| Blackpool | 1,115 | 17.72 | 813 | 12.9 | 1,928 |
| Lancashire-14┼ | c4,920 | 7.6 | c4,368 | 6.7 | c9,288 |
| North West | 27,820 | 8.63 | 20,340 | 6.3 | 48,230 |
| England | 178,560 | 7.38 | 146,430 | 6.1 | 358,370 |
Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, live tables on homelessness (Table A1). Notes: ┼Only district, region and England figures are provided in table A1, so the sub-regional values for Lancashire have been calculated by us. Ribble Valley council only supplied figures for (3) quarters, which are here sourced from the quarterly data, and the Lancashire-12 and Lancashire-14 totals are likewise impacted
The Homelessness Reduction Act of 2017, while not replacing the provisions of the 1996 and 2002 Acts, brought in responsibilities for local authorities and certain other public bodies to take earlier action to prevent homelessness. These responsibilities are the duty to prevent homelessness, the duty to provide 'relief' for already homeless households, the duty to refer to the local authority those at risk of homelessness and the requirement for local authorities to carry out holistic assessments of the applicant's housing needs. It is these assessments, and the records of duties owed resulting from the assessments, which are shown in Table 1.
This has a number of implications for this article on homelessness. One is that the previous generally accepted definition of homelessness, 'households accepted as homeless and in priority need' ceases to apply in the same way. The new wider definition is those households which are 'assessed as owed a relief duty'. Another implication is that the figures for those households in priority need are substantially reduced, as many of them have already been dealt with. Another effect of this is that it becomes impossible to compare these homeless statistics with those from years prior to the new Act.
Households accepted as homeless and in priority need
In the Lancashire-12 area in 2023/24, around 466 households were accepted as being homeless and in priority need, of which nearly half were found in just two districts, Lancaster and South Ribble. The Lancashire-12 figure equates to just 0.72% of the England total of 64,960. In the wider Lancashire-14 area the 188 homeless households in priority need in Blackpool formed over a quarter of the Lancashire-14 total of 654 (1% of England). Again, missing returns for one quarter in Ribble Valley prevent the Lancashire totals from being regarded as exact.
Table 2: Households accepted as homeless and in priority need, April 2023 to March 2024
| Area | Total main duty decisions for eligible households |
Homeless + priority need + unintentionally homeless (acceptance) |
|---|---|---|
| Burnley | 168 | 44 |
| Chorley | 102 | 26 |
| Fylde | 76 | 61 |
| Hyndburn | 23 | 5 |
| Lancaster | 298 | 119 |
| Pendle | 34 | 9 |
| Preston | 93 | 32 |
| Ribble Valley(3) | 9 | 8 |
| Rossendale | 38 | 29 |
| South Ribble | 181 | 102 |
| West Lancashire | 61 | 31 |
| Wyre | 27 | 0 |
| Lancashire-12┼ | c1,110 | c466 |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 3 | 0 |
| Blackpool | 334 | 188 |
| Lancashire-14┼ | c1,447 | c654 |
| North West | 15,320 | 8,430 |
| England | 94,280 | 64,960 |
Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, live tables on homelessness (Table MD1).
Notes: ┼Only district, region and England figures are provided in table MD1, so the sub-regional values for Lancashire have been calculated by us. Numbers in brackets are the number of quarterly figures provided, if fewer than 4.
Households in temporary accommodation
For England as a whole, households in temporary accommodation increased substantially from 83,600 in the 2018/19 financial year to 111,180 in 2023/24, which is some 11,300 more than in the previous year. Those in Lancashire-12 have increased by 19.3% to 340 households compared to 2022/23, but is just 0.31% of the England figure.
Table 3 Households living in temporary accommodation, 2018/19 to 2023/24
| Area |
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
2020/21 |
2021/22 |
2022/23 |
2023/24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnley | 4 | 7 | 26 | 25 | 23 | 32 |
| Chorley | 16 | 23 | 30 | 29 | 37 | 31 |
| Fylde | 4 | 16 | 10 | 9 | 26 | 29 |
| Hyndburn | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 11 |
| Lancaster | 15 | 6‡ | 40╬ | 31 | 34± | 37 |
| Pendle | 3 | 4 | 12 | 10 | 15 | 16 |
| Preston | 21 | 32 | 72 | 41± | 50‡ | 64 |
| Ribble Valley(3) | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4± | 8 | 8± |
| Rossendale | 2 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 17 | 22 |
| South Ribble | 31 | 32 | 41 | 43 | 49 | 50 |
| West Lancashire | 3 | 4 | 12 | 15 | 21 | 32 |
| Wyre | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 7 |
| Lancashire-12 | 103 | 133 | 250 | 227 | 285 | 340 |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 7 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 34 |
| Blackpool | 44 | 48 | 114 | 121 | 118 | 126 |
| Lancashire-14 | 154 | 186 | 384 | 367 | 428 | 500 |
| England | 83,600 | 88,533 | 95,855 | 95,688 | 99,888 | 111,180 |
Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, live tables on homelessness Table TA1* [2018/19 – 2023/24, average of 4 quarters]). Figure is average of just ±three quarters, ‡ two quarters, ╬ one quarter.
Rough sleepers
For autumn 2024, estimates were provided by local authorities that together came to 57 rough sleepers in the Lancashire-12 area and 92 in the Lancashire-14 area. For England as a whole the figure was 4,667.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publication' homelessness statistics web page includes figures on rough sleeping in England. Rough sleeping counts and estimates are single night snapshots of the number of people sleeping rough in local authority areas. Local authorities decide whether to carry out a count or an estimate based upon their assessment of whether the local rough sleeping problem justifies counting. These statistics are published in February of each year and refer to the snapshot number of rough sleepers in the previous autumn. Only in Chorley was a full count undertaken in 2024, but in Blackpool, Burnley, Lancaster, Pendle and Preston the estimates were augmented by 'spotlight counts' in specific areas, the other figures provided were purely estimates.
MHCLC now publishes detailed rough sleeping snapshot figures dating back to 2010. These show a total of 57 in the Lancashire-12 area, with 23 in Preston and 12 in Lancaster, while there were zero estimates for Chorley and Rossendale. The Lancashire-14 total was 92. In the Lancashire-12 area 94.7% were male, higher than the Lancashire-14 rate of 87%. Four authorities estimated or counted at least one female rough sleeper. In Blackpool there were seven.
In the Lancashire-12 area the number of rough sleepers fell by 25% compared to 2023 (10.7% in Lancashire-14).
Table 4 Rough sleeper snapshots 2023 to 2024
| klo |
2023 |
2024 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area | Male |
Female |
Total | Method | Male | Female | Total | Method |
| Burnley | 6 | 1 | 7 | Est/spot | 1 | 0 | 1 | Est/spot |
| Chorley | 6 | 0 | 6 | Est | 0 | 0 | 0 | Count |
| Fylde | 0 | 1 | 1 | Count | 5 | 0 | 5 | Est |
| Hyndburn | 7 | 1 | 8 | Est | 4 | 2 | 6 | Est |
| Lancaster | 11 | 3 | 14 | Count | 12 | 0 | 12 | Est/spot |
| Pendle | 5 | 0 | 5 | Est/spot | 1 | 0 | 1 | Est/spot |
| Preston | 24 | 3 | 27 | Est/spot | 22 | 1 | 23 | Est/spot |
| Ribble Valley | 1 | 0 | 1 | Est | 1 | 0 | 1 | Est |
| Rossendale | 0 | 0 | 0 | Est | 0 | 0 | 0 | Est |
| South Ribble | 2 | 0 | 2 | Est | 1 | 0 | 1 | Est |
| West Lancashire | 5 | 0 | 5 | Est | 4 | 0 | 4 | Est |
| Wyre | 0 | 0 | 0 | Est | 3 | 0 | 3 | Est |
| Lancashire-12 | 67 | 9 | 76 | 54 | 3 | 57 | ||
| Blackburn with Darwen | 5 | 1 | 6 | Est | 9 | 2 | 11 | Est |
| Blackpool | 12 | 9 | 21 | Est/spot | 17 | 7 | 24 | Est/spot |
| Lancashire-14 | 84 | 19 | 103 | 80 | 12 | 92 | ||
| North West | 319* | 48 | 369 | 311** | 51 | 367 | ||
| England | 3,214┼ | 568 | 3,898 | 3,858╪ | 680 | 4,667 | ||
Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government , live tables on homelessness Annual Rough Sleeping Snapshot in England: autumn 2024
*Estimate includes 2 of unknown gender; **estimate includes 5 of unknown gender; ┼ estimate includes 116 of unknown gender; ╪ estimate includes 129 of unknown gender. Est = Estimate, Est/spot = Estimate including spotlight.
In the North West region 86.5% of rough sleepers were male
For England as a whole, the figure was 4,667 in 2024 of which 82.7% were male. The total reflects a 164% increase over 2010 when 1,770 rough sleepers were counted or estimated, and is not far short of the peak 2017 figure (4,751).
There were large falls in numbers of rough sleepers for the two years after 2019 as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 'Everyone In' Initiative was launched at the end of March 2020 as part of a general drive to protect the most vulnerable in Society from Covid-19.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government's Rough Sleeping Initiative, launched in March 2018 targeted local authorities affected by large numbers of rough sleepers, including Preston, was backed by funding of £30 million and was developed across government in conjunction with charities and experts. The Rough Sleeping Strategy, launched in August 2018, implied that a more reliable method of evaluating the numbers of rough sleepers would be preferable, useful though the current method is.
Other resources
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, have published a dashboard containing the tables on homelessness, and shows figures for selected local authorities. There is also a dashboard relating to rough sleeping from the same department. We have put in links to these on the lower Related Websites panel on the right.
Page updated July 2025