Yahoo News Rising rents driving record homelessness among private tenants, Sky News analysis reveals
The cost of living crisis and end of pandemic support is driving up homelessness rates in many parts of England.
Sky News analysis of new data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities shows that homelessness rates are higher now than they were before the pandemic in two-fifths of local authorities.
In 36 of the 289 areas in our analysis, the number of homeless per 1,000 households increased by more than 50% between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2022.
Homelessness among private renters has hit record highs, largely because landlords are choosing to sell or re-let their properties. Experts warn that the situation will only get worse due to the growing cost of living crisis.
Overall homelessness rates for England fell by 2.5% over this period. But looking at the nationwide picture disguises the sharp increases in some places.
In the Eden district of Cumbria, homelessness rates are more than four times what they were in early 2020.
Although the rates here are still far lower than the worse affected, Manchester, where homelessness rates are three times England's average.
The end of pandemic support, such as the furlough scheme, universal credit uplift and ban on evictions, also risks making many more people homeless.
Modelling done by Heriot-Watt University shows that ending extra pandemic support risks a large increase in homelessness in the coming years.
Glen Bramley, who works as part of the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University, says that with the rising cost of living we are facing "multiple crises".
"The government have allowed private rental evictions to go ahead while freezing Local Housing Allowance when housing rents are rising significantly," he says.
"Unless something is done, it's going to be fairly dire situation."
Our analysis found that there is already a significant rise in homelessness from the private rental market.
The number of households who are homeless or at threat of homelessness after leaving a private rental is at the highest levels since the data was first published, having increased 27% over the last two years.
This rise is in turn being driven by a sharp increase in the number of landlords deciding to end a tenancy so they can re-let or sell their property.
In England, the number of households leaving private rentals because of this has increased by two-fifths, according to our analysis. In the South West it has risen by 80% and in the North East by 71%.
There has also been a significant increase in homelessness among households with children.
In England, there has been an 18% rise since the start of the pandemic, while in Yorkshire and Humber it has increased twice as much.
Meanwhile, homelessness rates among single households fell 2.8% in England, despite a 9.4% increase in London.
Professor Bramley says this parallels poverty figures, which are likely to worsen over the coming months.
"What we're expecting this autumn is even more families experiencing severe poverty and destitution because of the cost of living crisis," he says. "More homelessness will be a by-product of that."
Does this show the full picture?
The homelessness numbers published by the government only refer to households receiving relief duties, which is council support to help the homeless find accommodation, based on initial assessments,
Polly Neate, chief executive of homeless charity Shelter, says the data is a "useful indicator" but does not capture everything.
"Some types of homelessness go entirely undocumented, like sofa surfing, which means the true number of people without a home will be even higher."
The headline data also doesn't reflect whether this support is effective. Our analysis finds that most people are failed by the current system.
In early 2022, 53% of households in England were still homeless at the end of their relief duties. Moreover, almost two-fifths of households that were at risk ended up homeless at the end of their prevention duties.
'Dire shortage' of affordable social homes
Polly Neate from Shelter says that the next prime minister "must get a grip on this crisis fast" to stop families ending up in "grossly insecure and unsuitable temporary accommodation".
"The dire shortage of genuinely affordable social homes means millions of people have no choice but to live in really expensive and unstable private renting," she says.
"To end homelessness for good, building decent social homes with rents pegged to local incomes is the only answer."
Councillor Luthfur Rahman, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, says they are committed to building more social housing in Manchester and increasing the number of affordable homes.
"We are under no illusion that the figures will continue to rise as the cost-of-living crisis deepens and benefits do not keep pace with the housing market," he says.
Cllr Judith Derbyshire, housing and health portfolio holder at Eden District Council, says that the area had relatively low levels of homelessness before the pandemic and that they are now helping more people at risk of homelessness than who are homeless already.
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: "These figures show our measures to protect people during the pandemic have worked to keep levels of homelessness remaining broadly stable.
"We took action to protect renters and prevent homelessness by providing councils with an additional £65 million to help vulnerable households with rent arrears to reduce the risk of them becoming homeless.
"We are also providing a £37 billion package of support to help households with rising costs, including £1,200 this year for the most vulnerable helping them to pay their bills and stay in their homes."
Methodology
The rates of homelessness are calculated using the number of households receiving relief duty after initial assessment and the total number of households in an area.
Data for the following areas was unavailable for either Q1 2020 or Q1 2022 and so they were omitted from the analysis, although estimates were still included in the overall figures for England: Barnsley, Bromsgrove, Charnwood, Cornwall, Halton, Hounslow, Preston, Redditch, Ribble Valley, Rugby, Sandwell. Slough, South Holland, South Tyneside, Dartford, Lancaster, Redbridge, Wandsworth, Woking.
The number of households homeless at the end of relief duty includes intentionally homeless from accommodation, refused final accommodation, contact lost and 56 days elapsed with no further action. The number of households homeless at the end of prevention duty includes those refused accommodation, contact lost and 56 days elapsed with no further action.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
