3 things Labour must do right now to help 300,000 homeless households in England

Almost 300,000 individuals and families are experiencing the worst forms of homelessness in England, according to new research from Crisis, which sends a grim warning to Labour.

A total of 299,100 households are now experiencing acute homelessness across the country, including people sleeping on the streets, living in unsuitable temporary accommodation or unconventional places like tents, or squatting.

Crisis’ state of the nation report, led by Heriot-Watt University, revealed a 21% rise in homelessness since 2022 and a 45% rise since 2012.

Labour has vowed to spend £1 billion on tackling homelessness and rough sleeping since coming to power, looking to shift towards prevention, and has also committed to a £39bn social and affordable homes programme over the next 10 years.

The government is set to publish a long-term, cross-government homelessness strategy before the end of the year.

Crisis chief executive Matt Downie said the figures show the urgent need for Labour to set out its plan. 

“These shocking new findings require a rapid response from the UK government,” said Downie.

“Ministers must deliver on their manifesto pledge to get the country back on track to ending homelessness, including a guarantee that social homes will be delivered as quickly as possible and at scale.

“The government has said that it wants to see an immediate fall in homelessness levels. For this to be true, ministers must also focus their efforts on preventing it from happening in the first place. By restoring housing benefit in this month’s autumn budget so that it covers the true cost of rents, we can stop thousands of households from losing their homes. 

“With winter approaching, and pressure on councils expected to grow, Westminster must take this opportunity to fix the sharpest end of the housing crisis.”

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Growing homelessness across England has seen record-high numbers of households living in temporary accommodation while the collective costs have pushed councils to the brink of bankruptcy.

The numbers of people having to sleep rough and households having to stay in unsuitable temporary accommodation increased by around 150% each since 2020 levels, the Crisis report said, with more than 15,000 people sleeping rough last year alone.

A national survey of England’s councils, featured in this research, also revealed that 70% have seen an increase in the numbers approaching them for homelessness assistance in the last year.

Overall, local authorities in London and across the north of England reported the biggest increases.

Councils across the country cited a lack of affordable housing and insufficient welfare support as fuelling record homelessness and and sky-high spending on unsuitable accommodation.

In total, councils in England spent £732 million on the most unsuitable forms of emergency accommodation in 2023/24. The cost of temporary accommodation as a whole was £2.7bn for 2024/25.

To turn things around, the Labour’s cross-government strategy must address the shortage of social homes, insufficient welfare support and gaps in support systems, the report found.

Labour’s £39bn social and affordable homes programme is expected to deliver 180,000 new social homes in 10 years but, just last month, the government cut affordable housing targets in London from 35% to 20% of projects to speed up housebuilding.

Crisis called for “cast iron guarantees” that social housing building will happen at scale. The charity has also urged the government to unfreeze local housing allowance rates at the autumn budget later this month to help low-income renters.

The new research shows that homelessness resulting from evictions from UK asylum accommodation was up by 37% in the last year, influenced by the acceleration of Home Office decisions on claims.

At the same time, homelessness resulting from discharge from hospitals, prisons and other institutions went up 22% in the last year. This is likely in part the result of the UK government’s early prison release scheme which has added pressure on council finances.

Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe, from Heriot-Watt University, said: “Our analysis also makes clear that more people will lose their homes if current policies continue.

“Ramping up efforts to prevent homelessness is absolutely essential and the surest means to do this include restoring housing benefit to match the cost of private rent and bridging woeful gaps in support services to help people maintain their tenancies.”

Speaking in parliament recently, new homelessness minister Alison McGovern admitted the number of children experiencing homelessness was a “shock” when she took on the role in September.

“The government has inherited a crisis,” said McGovern. “We have tried to make some progress quickly and I hope that colleagues will see I have wasted no time in getting more money to local authorities to help now while we finish the strategy. But, in the end, that long-term approach is what we need.”

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