Homelessness prevention and relief: England 2010 to 2011
Official statistics on homelessness prevention and relief in England that took place outside the homelessness statutory framework.
Applies to England
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This is an experimental official statistics release on homelessness prevention and relief in England that took place outside the homelessness statutory framework in 2010 to 2011. This is the 3rd year that figures on homelessness prevention and relief have been published by the Department for Communities and Local Government under arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.
This is the first time year-on-year comparisons can be made. However, care should be taken when comparing annual figures as more comprehensive reporting by local authorities over time is known to be a contributing factor to the rise in activity we have seen in the past 2 years. Thus it is difficult to estimate the real increase in activity undertaken by local authorities and partner organisations.
The main points from this release are:
- in 2010 to 2011, a total of 188,800 cases of homelessness prevention or relief are estimated to have taken place outside the statutory homelessness framework in England; of these cases 163,800 (87%) were preventions and 24,800 (13%) were cases of relief
- the total number of cases of homelessness prevention or relief increased by 14% when compared to 2009 to 2010; this is mostly due to an increase in prevention cases, which increased by 16%, while cases of relief increased by only 2%
- in 2010 to 2011, 57% of cases of homelessness prevention and relief involved the household being assisted to obtain alternative accommodation; the remaining 43% involved the cases being assisted to remain in their existing home; this compares to 61% and 39% respectively in 2009 to 2010
- the most common action taken to prevent or relieve homelessness was the use of landlord incentive schemes to secure private rented sector accommodation; in 2010 to 2011, 30,800 cases (29%) were assisted in obtaining alternative accommodation this way, though this was a decrease in activity of 15% compared to 2009 to 2010
- Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest rate of cases of prevention and relief with 10.8 cases per 1,000 households; the North East (10.4 cases per 1,000 households), East Midlands (10.2) and London (10.1) also had high rates of prevention and relief; the East of England, with 6.6 cases per 1,000 households, had the lowest rate