Background to the report
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities
(DLUHC) has policy responsibility for tackling
homelessness and leads on implementing homelessness policies
across government. Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 defines someone
as ‘homeless' if there is no accommodation available for them to
occupy, or if it is not reasonable for them to continue
occupying the accommodation they have.
DLUHC also distributes homelessness funding to local authorities,
who have statutory duties to assist people who are homeless
or threatened with homelessness. In 2022-23, local
authorities spent £2.44 billion on delivering homelessness
services. Prior to 2018, their key duty was to provide temporary
accommodation to homeless households considered to be in priority
need and therefore entitled to it in law. However, the
Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (HRA 2017), which came into
force in April 2018, extended local authorities' statutory
duties, which now cover the following:
- Prevention duty: Taking reasonable steps to prevent
homelessness
- Relief duty: Taking reasonable steps to relieve
homelessness
- Main duty: Providing temporary accommodation, which can be
shared or self-contained, and for many households entails living
in a single room
Not having a secure home significantly affects individuals'
quality of life and imposes strain on public services, both
in the short and long term.
Scope of the report
This report follows on from our last report on homelessness
in 2017 – around six months before Homelessness Reduction
Act (HRA) 2017 came into force.
We are returning to this topic now that the HRA 2017 changes have
had time to take effect. We assess value for money in
terms of whether DLUHC is working with government departments and
local authorities in a way that maximises government's
ability to tackle homelessness. Specifically, we look to
establish whether DLUHC: has a good understanding of the nature
of homelessness; is delivering appropriate system
leadership; and supports local authorities well.
- Part One sets out the main trends and patterns in
homelessness
- Part Two examines how well DLUHC is executing its policy
responsibility for tackling homelessness and leading on
implementing it across government
- Part Three assesses whether DLUHC is supporting local
authorities to deliver their statutory duties efficiently
and effectively
Conclusions
Homelessness is a highly complex issue affected by a wide range
of social and economic factors, and by government policy in areas
such as housing, welfare and asylum. Statutory homelessness
has increased significantly in recent years, meaning that
more people are finding themselves either with no stable place to
live or in temporary accommodation provided by their local
authority.
Providing temporary accommodation alone cost local
authorities over £1.6 billion in 2022-23, but it varies in
quality and there are gaps in regulation, while some of it – such
as B&Bs being used for households with children – is
unsuitable. Dealing with homelessness is creating unsustainable
financial pressure for some local authorities.
The situation has worsened since we last examined the issue in
2017. Despite the introduction of HRA 2017, homelessness
numbers are at a record level and expected to increase. While
DLUHC has developed much better homelessness data and stronger
links with local authorities, the government still has no
strategy or public targets for reducing statutory homelessness,
and DLUHC is falling behind on key programmes to improve housing
supply. Funding remains fragmented and generally short-term,
inhibiting homelessness prevention work and limiting investment
in good-quality temporary accommodation or other forms of
housing.
Until these factors are addressed across government, DLUHC will
not be able to demonstrate that it is delivering optimal
value for money from its efforts to
tackle homelessness.
