Homelessness

Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 10 September 2008.

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Photo of Karen Buck Karen Buck Labour, Regent's Park and Kensington North

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of households presenting as homeless were accepted as such in (a) England, (b) each region and (c) each London local authority in each of the last five years.

Photo of Iain Wright Iain Wright Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Communities and Local Government)

holding answer 14 July 2008

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.

Under the legislation, authorities must secure suitable accommodation for applicants accepted as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need (or take steps to secure that accommodation does not cease to be available if the applicant is likely to become homeless within 28 days). CLG's quarterly homelessness Statistical Release refers to these duties as "the main homelessness duties" and relevant applicants are recorded as "homeless acceptances".

Two tables have been placed in the Library. Table A shows the number of eligible applicants for whom a decision was taken, and the number and proportion where the applicant was found to be eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and therefore accepted as being owed a main homelessness duty, between 2003-04 and 2007-08, by local authority. Note that the decision figures exclude applications by households not eligible for assistance under the legislation.

Table B shows the same data for each Government office region and for England.

The following table contains extracts from these two tables and shows the proportion of applicants for whom a decision was taken where the outcome was that the applicant was accepted as being owed a main homelessness duty, between 2003-04 and 2007-08, by Government office region and London local authority:

Percentage
2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
England 45 45 44 46 48
Regions
North-east 44 43 46 51 55
North-west 42 44 42 45 45
Yorkshire and the Humber 42 37 34 36 40
East midlands 48 50 52 56 59
West midlands 44 44 41 46 52
East of England 49 51 49 50 53
London 45 46 45 46 48
South-east 48 50 51 52 50
South-west 51 49 47 44 46
London local authority
Barking and Dagenham 46 51 67 (1) 49
Barnet 19 16 (1) 63 50
Bexley 32 36 27 30 36
Brent 36 31 41 46 48
Bromley 45 (1) 56 60 72
Camden 64 63 71 64 62
City of London 48 70 58 60 50
Croydon 27 28 25 32 24
Ealing 42 36 32 26 27
Enfield 62 (1) 64 62 63
Greenwich 40 40 37 46 52
Hackney (1) 63 (1) 48 49
Hammersmith and Fulham 51 53 56 33 60
Haringey (1) 72 72 64 89
Harrow 40 18 20 29 38
Havering 61 43 (1) 53 43
Hillingdon 52 65 57 57 59
Hounslow 61 68 64 68 63
Islington (1) 47 (1) 41 42
Kensington and Chelsea 48 48 27 (1) 24
Kingston upon Thames 33 (1) (1) 24 24
Lambeth 57 63 59 54 70
Lewisham 54 58 55 58 82
Merton 24 41 63 70 69
Newham 72 (1) 55 46 44
Redbridge 77 (1) 69 52 66
Richmond upon Thames 41 58 57 46 48
Southwark 71 65 53 47 49
Sutton 30 30 37 40 40
Tower Hamlets 70 63 55 66 (1)
Waltham Forest 31 29 31 32 24
Wandsworth 46 46 44 45 38
Westminster 29 34 49 58 (1)
(1) Data not reported

Source:

CLG P1E data

Regional and local authority level data on the outcomes of all decisions are published quarterly in the Supplementary Tables which accompany the quarterly statistical release on Statutory Homelessness. These are published on our website and placed in the Library. The latest release was published on 12 June 2008.

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