Homeless households

Statutory homelessness statistics are published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and provide information about those who local authorities have a duty to accommodate as they are homeless through no fault of their own, eligible for assistance, and have a ‘priority need’. This primarily includes those with children or a vulnerability, including disability or mental ill-health. It also includes information about new statutory duties created by the Homelessness Reduction Act to try and prevent and relieve homelessness.

Statutory homelessness figures for some local authorities are missing for some time periods. As a result, figures for Lancashire-12 and Lancashire-14 are not available for these periods. Missing values at the regional and national level are imputed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Local authority district figures have been used here to calculate figures for Lancashire-12 and Lancashire-14.

Definition of statutory homelessness

The Homelessness Reduction Act of 2017, while not replacing the provisions of the 1996 and 2002 legislation, 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 an assessment of the applicant's housing needs. For households with a priority need, if housing isn't secured under the relief duty after 56 days, providing they are homeless through no fault of their own, local authorities also have a duty to arrange temporary accommodation until more settled accommodation is secured (referred to as a main housing duty).

Following the Homelessness Reduction Act of 2017, the definition of statutory homelessness was widened to households which are assessed as owed a relief duty. This was a change from the previous generally accepted definition of homelessness which was 'households accepted as homeless and in priority need'.

Under the current framework, households are accepted being owed a main housing duty if they are in priority need, are unintentionally homeless, and housing hasn't been secured under the relief duty after 56. As many households which would have previously met the criteria may secure housing under the relief duty, the number of households defined as homeless and in priority need are lower than prior to the 2017 act. As a result, it is not possible to compare recently published figures for homelessness and households in priority need with figures prior to the change in legislation.

When a household is no longer owed a duty, they are no longer considered to be statutorily homeness. This can occur when the local authority has ended their duty or a person's circumstances have changed and they no longer qualify for help.

Rough sleeping

Rough sleeping snapshot statistics are published each February by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The figures provide a snapshot of the number of people sleeping rough on a single night in the previous autumn.

People sleeping rough are defined as those sleeping or about to bed down in open air locations and other places including tents and makeshift shelters. The snapshot does not include people in hostels or shelters, or those in recreational or organised protest, squatter or traveller campsites.

Local authorities estimate the number of people rough sleeping using either a count-based estimate of visible rough sleeping, an evidence-based estimate meeting with local partners, or an evidence-based estimate meeting including a spotlight count in specific areas. Local authorities, together with local partners, decide which approach and date to use for their snapshot of rough sleeping.

In Lancashire-14 for the autumn 2024 snapshot, Chorley used a count-based estimate, while in Blackpool, Burnley, Lancaster, Pendle and Preston used evidence-based estimates with spotlight counts in specific areas. All other authorities provided evidence-based estimates without undertaking any counts.

Limitations

The statutory homelessness figures do not provide a complete picture everyone who is experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness or living in temporary accommodation. People who are not eligible for any support with housing or do not approach local authorities for help are not included in these figures (known as hidden homelessness). These figures also do not include people who receive support with housing through other services, such as accommodation for asylum seekers arranged by the Home Office or those eligible for accommodation under other legislation.

The rough sleeping snapshot figures do not provide a complete picture of everyone who is sleeping rough, as they do not include everyone in an area with a history of sleeping rough. As the figures are for a single night, they do not include everyone sleeping rough in areas across the October to November period.

Sources of further information

A dashboard containing the rough sleeping snapshot figures for all local authority areas is available on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government website.

Recent research briefings about temporary accommodation are available from the House of Commons Library, detailing how temporary accommodation is provided to homeless households and the issues and government action. LG Inform provides a research report on understanding homelessness, in addition to a summary report of mortgage and landlord possessions in Lancashire.