Trend report: number of homeless households rises by a fifth in five years

What are prevention and relief duties?

 

A relief duty occurs where a local authority is satisfied that someone is homeless and eligible, which means it must help them secure accommodation for at least six months.

 

A local authority owes an individual a prevention duty if they are threatened with homelessness within 56 days or have been given a valid Section 21 eviction notice.

 

There was a 13 per cent increase in the number of households whose prevention or relief duty ended between January to March 2019 compared to 2024. Duties may end for various reasons, however finding suitable accommodation for at least six months is the chief reason.

London

 

The number of households whose relief duty ended after securing accommodation for at least six months in London has increased by 67 per cent since 2019.

 

The percentage of people who had a prevention duty ended for the same reason rose by 12 per cent in the capital during the same period. These figures are from January to March in the two years, according to the government’s latest homelessness figures.

 

Prevention duty

 

The number of households where a prevention duty ended after they secured accommodation has reduced by three per cent in the period nationally and there are even greater regional discrepancies.

 

 

In absolute terms, there was a rise of 590 in the number of households where a prevention duty ended in January to March 2019 compared to January to March 2024 because they had accommodation for six months or more. 

 

Five of the nine regions measured saw a drop in the number of prevention duties that ended in 2024 compared to 2019. The North East saw the largest fall at 29.6 per cent, followed by the East Midlands and the South West at 29.2 per cent and 26.7 per cent respectively.

 

In contrast, the West Midlands saw a substantial increase in prevention duties ending from 2019 to 2024 at 46.3 per cent because households had accommodation for six months or more. The East of England, London and the South East all saw an increase of between seven and 13 per cent.

 

Relief duty

 

The number of people whose relief duty ended after securing accommodation has increased by 24 per cent in England between 2019 and 2024 (January to March). However, we see large variance in the figure when analysing by region.

 

 

All but one region in England – Yorkshire and the Humber – had more households where relief duties ended in the period of January to March 2024 than the same period in 2019 because the households had accommodation for six months or more.

 

The West Midlands again saw a large increase in the number of households where relief duties ended because the households found accommodation at 50.7 per cent in the five-year period.

 

The East Midlands saw an 8.1 per cent increase in the period, however between 2023 and 2024 it saw a fall of 11.3 per cent in relief duties ending for the same reason.

 

With London excluded, the rest of England saw an increase of 18.1 per cent in relief duties ending due to households securing accommodation for six months or more between 2019 and 2024. Between 2023 and 2024, it saw a slight reduction of 0.9 per cent (with London excluded), while London saw an increase of 9.6 per cent in relief duties ending due to households finding accommodation for at least six months.

 

 

Government data on prevention and relief duty by ethnic background provides deeper insight into who is at risk of homelessness. The financial years studied range from 2018-19 to 2022-23.

 

The Black community had the most households owed a homelessness prevention or relief duty compared to their share of the overall population of England. This includes people of Black, African, Caribbean or Black British heritage.

 

Black households made up between 10 and 11 per cent of homeless households eligible for a prevention or relief duty over the past five years, while four per cent of the population in England is Black, according to the latest government census in 2021.

 

 

In comparison, the Asian community, which includes people of Asian and Asian British heritage, makes up nine per cent of the population, but Asian households accounted for six per cent of homeless households owed a prevention or relief duty.

 

White people account for 82 per cent of the English population, and white households made up between 67 to 71 per cent of those owed a homelessness duty in the five-year period studied.