Christopher Huhne (Eastleigh, Liberal Democrat)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of 18 to 21 year olds who are in (a) homeless, (b) emergency and (c) night shelter accommodation.

Ian Austin (Minister of State (the West Midlands), Regional Affairs; Dudley North, Labour)

Information about English local housing authorities' actions under the homelessness legislation (Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) is collected quarterly at local authority level. The data includes households housed in temporary accommodation by local authorities as at the last day of each quarter. There were 60,230 households in temporary accommodation on 30th June 2009, 19 per cent. lower than the same date last year and 41 per cent. lower than the peak in 2004. We do not collect centrally the age of applicants in temporary accommodation households and therefore it is not possible to identify the number of 18 to 21-year-olds in these households.

Data about the number of 18 to 21-year-olds who access housing related support services, funded by the Supporting People programme is submitted by providers of housing related support services on a quarterly basis. This data source includes information on those who access 'direct access' services. 'Direct access' services are defined as night shelters, emergency or crisis accommodation, including direct access hostels, and other homeless hostels. Therefore Supporting People data does not separate out 'emergency' from 'night shelter' accommodation.