Latest Government statistics paint a bleak picture of the current state of Temporary Accommodation and impact of Cost of Living Crisis in England

The latest government statutory live tables and figures on homelessness have been updated, along with a report with visual breakdown of the data here. We thought we’d share a summary of what Justlife’s Research and Policy team have gleaned from the data.

74230 households (Household means any “grouping” ie a two parent family, single parent family, couple or single person) were initially assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness in the last quarter, an annual increase of 5.4%, with 37,260 assessed as being owed a prevention duty - an increase of 15.1% from this time last year .

By far the highest reason for loss of last home in those owed a prevention duty was end of “private rental with assured shorthold tenancy” (An assured shorthold tenancy is the most common tenancy if you rent from a private landlord or letting agent. The main feature that makes an AST different from other tenancies is your landlord can evict you without a reason). People citing this as their reason for becoming homeless has almost doubled since the last quarter, and, according to DLUC, represents a 141.5% increase from the same quarter last year. Many within our sector predicted this was to come with the cost of living crisis hitting at the start of this year, coupled with the impact of the end of the eviction ban and Universal Credit uplift in the previous years.

In terms of Temporary Accommodation (TA), while there is a slight annual decrease of people in TA of 0.2%, there’s still a shocking 95,060 households in TA, and 119,840 children. The latest stats show a worrying increase in the use of B&B style TA for families with children, and a 39.6% increase in the number of families staying in B&Bs beyond the legal limit of 6 weeks.

Additionally, 26,620 out of area placements were recorded in the last quarter - meaning roughly a quarter of the people in TA are also facing displacement from their local area.

Some of the highest numbers are in London. There were 15.7 households living in temporary accommodation per 1000 households in London, compared with 1.9 households per 1000 in the Rest of England. 21,620 of the out of area placements recorded were related to London.

These figures are undeniably alarming, and we believe they paint a picture that tells us that now more than ever there is a desperate need for solutions. As a sector we need to come together and seek to make people’s stay in TA as short, safe and healthy as possible, while working collaboratively towards long term solutions to the homelessness crisis. Through this, some hope for the people living in TA may be found despite these bleak statistics.

Justlife is a solutions-focused, collaborative organisation. Please do explore our national research and policy work here and local Brighton and Manchester work for ways to get involved, or drop us a line and say hello.