Supplementary note from the Office of
the Deputy Prime Minister
Q39-40—HIGH
LEVELS OF
HOMELESSNESS IN
YORKSHIRE AND
THE HUMBER
Levels of homelessness are influenced by a variety
of factors, including housing supply and demand, other structural
factors like the economy, wider social and personal factors including
family and relationship breakdown, and changes in the homelessness
legislation and its implementation by local authorities.
The official statistics on statutory homelessness,
published quarterly by ODPM, measure the "flow" of homelessness
cases—that is the number of households approaching local
authorities and being accepted for help during each quarter—and
the "stock" of households who, having asked for help,
have been placed in temporary accommodation and are still in such
accommodation at the end of the quarter, waiting for a settled
home.
The use of temporary accommodation is heavily
concentrated in regions which are known generally for higher levels
of housing demand. The number of households in temporary accommodation
in the Yorkshire and the Humber region is relatively low. Numbers
and percentages for each region at 31 December 2004 are set out
in the table below:
Table 1: Households in accommodation arranged
by local authorities in England under the homelessness legislation,
by Government Office region, as at 31 December 2004.
| Region | H'holds in TA
at 31/12/04
|
% of England total |
| North East | 840 | 1
|
| North West | 2,730 | 3
|
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 2,220
| 2 |
| East Midlands | 2,870 | 3
|
| West Midlands | 2,600 | 3
|
| East of England | 8,350 |
8 |
| London | 61,670 | 61
|
| South East | 13,340 | 13
|
| South West | 6,420 | 6
|
| England | 101,030 | 100
|
| | |
The flow of homelessness is not so heavily concentrated in
areas of higher demand for housing. Numbers, rates per 1,000 households
and percentages for households accepted by local authorities as
unintentionally homeless and in priority need over the course
of 2004 are set out in the table below. This shows that, while
London has the highest number and rate per 1,000 of homelessness
acceptances in England, Yorkshire and the Humber has the third
highest rate per thousand, and the South East has the lowest rate
per 1,000.
Table 2: Unintentionally homeless households in priority
need accepted by local authorities in England during 2004, by
Government Office region.
| Region | Homelessness
acceptances in
2004
| Acceptances
per 1,000
h'holds
| % of England
total |
| North East | 8,510 | 7.8
| 7 |
| North West | 17,720 | 6.2
| 14 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 14,590
| 6.9 | 11 |
| East Midlands | 9,570 | 5.4
| 7 |
| West Midlands | 15,080 |
6.9 | 12 |
| East of England | 10,680 |
4.6 | 8 |
| London | 28,050 | 8.7
| 22 |
| South East | 13,460 | 4.0
| 11 |
| South West | 10,100 | 4.7
| 8 |
| England | 127,760 | 6.1
| 100 |
| | |
|
Together with the North East, the Yorkshire and the Humber
region experienced the highest percentage increase in homelessness
acceptances in recent years, nearly doubling between 1999 and
2003, although numbers fell (as they did nationally) in 2004.
The statistics indicate that the most significant increases occurred
amongst households that didn't contain children (possibly an impact
of the wider priority need categories brought into force in 2002,
covering groups more likely to consist of single person households)
and former asylum seekers given leave to remain. The level of
acceptances in Leeds and Sheffield has had a significant impact
on the figures for the region as a whole.
Overall, the relatively high level of homelessness acceptances
in the Yorkshire and the Humber region confirms the general understanding
that homelessness can be caused by a variety of factors that go
beyond housing demand and supply, and that effective responses
to homelessness require more than housing.
Q51-52-53—CHILDREN'S
SOCIETY RESEARCH
ON YOUNG
RUNAWAYS
The Children's Society research report "Living on the
Edge: the experiences of detached young runaways" was launched
on 2 March. The research involved a series of 23 interviews with
young people aged 13 to 21 who were categorised as having run
away from home, been thrown out or abandoned by parents before
the age of 16. It has been published as part of the Children's
Society's Safe and Sound campaign, which is calling for a network
of emergency accommodation and local authority plans for children
who run away.
The Green Paper, "Every Child Matters",
published in September 2003 sets out the outcomes that Government
wants to see for all children. They need to be safe, healthy,
enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution to their community,
and have the opportunity to enjoy economic well-being. The Children
Act 2004 provides a new framework to enable these outcomes to
be achieved.
Our strategy for tackling homelessness, "Sustainable
Communities: settled homes, changing lives", published
on 14 March 2004, sets out in section 4—Support for people
when they are vulnerable—the action ODPM is taking in partnership
with the Department for Education and Skills to help children
and young people at risk of homelessness.
This includes ensuring effective joint working between housing
and social services in the development of Children's Trust arrangements.
Under new arrangements being implemented under the Children's
Act 2004, the Director of Children's Services will be responsible
for ensuring that local children's services meet the needs of
children and young people while an Integrated Inspection Framework
will ensure that children's services are meeting the required
standards.
ODPM's Homelessness and Housing Support Directorate is investing
£200,000 over two years to secure the future of the London
Refuge for Runaway Children, which has provided accommodation
and support for over 2,000 child runaways since 1994.
April 2005 will mark the beginning of a second year of a
community based refuge pilot project, funded by the Department
for Education and Skills. There are six projects throughout England
piloting a range of approaches to help detached young people,
including help lines, family mediation and outreach work. The
pilots are providing some promising evidence on earlier and more
effective interventions with young people.
The pilots are all able to provide different options for
emergency accommodation, for example with family-support foster
carers, emergency beds in children's homes, or in a refuge service
provided by a voluntary sector agency, all conforming to established
care standards.
Q98—HOMELESSNESS IN
WALES
The National Audit Office are leading on the production of
a supplementary note to respond to the Committee's questions about
homelessness in Wales and this will require further discussion
with colleagues in Wales.
Q112-113—HOMELESSNESS STRATEGIES,
SOCIAL SERVICES
INVOLVEMENT AND
FUNDING
Figure 29 of the Comptroller & Auditor General's Report,
"More than a roof: Progress in tackling homelessness",
sets out a number of areas for further development identified
in local authorities' homelessness strategies. These included
a finding that Social Services often did not take part in the
reviews of homelessness on which strategies are based, and that
four out of ten authorities had failed to identify the resources
they need to fulfil their strategy.
These findings were drawn by the Comptroller & Auditor
General from an evaluation of homelessness strategies conducted
by Housing Quality Network Services, which ODPM commissioned and
which was published in November 2004 ("Local Authorities'
Homelessness Strategies, Evaluation and Good Practice").
The evaluation was commissioned and designed expressly to offer
local authorities and others a picture of how they had tackled
their new responsibilities under the Homelessness Act 2002 to
conduct a review and develop a homelessness strategy. In particular,
the evaluation aimed to aid future service development.
While Figure 29 of the Comptroller & Auditor General's
Report highlights the areas where a need for further development
has been identified, it is important to note that this is set
in a context of considerable progress. In their evaluation, Housing
Quality Network Services found that:
"The exercise has been an impressive undertaking that,
at best, drew in the views of service users, other agencies and
authorities and other council departments as never before to focus
on tackling homelessness."
And that:
"Overall, it has been a very positive process, and the
universal view among participants in a workshop as part of the
evaluation was that, although the task had been quite a difficult
one, it was highly useful and they felt much had been gained by
it, making a difference to the homelessness picture across the
country."
The Comptroller & Auditor General's Report acknowledges
this progress too, finding that:
"In relation to local progress and strategy making:
— strategies have helped to raise the profile of
homelessness issues and the need to tackle them;
— strategies have led to stronger partnerships in
many areas;
— strategies have led to changes in approach".
We are using the findings from this evaluation and the Comptroller
& Auditor General's recommendations to work with local authorities
to ensure that good practice examples become more widespread as
strategies are reviewed and renewed.
Existing statutory guidance on homelessness, issued in July
2002, makes clear the statutory requirements on co-operation that
exist between local housing and social services authorities.
ODPM's Homelessness and Housing Support Directorate has worked
with a number of housing and social services authorities to develop
more effective joint approaches and will continue to do so. This
work is looking at, for example, joint housing and social services
protocols for dealing with homeless 16 and 17 year-olds and families
with children who have become homeless intentionally.
This will be under-pinned by our joint work with the Department
for Education and Skills on statutory guidance on homelessness
and children's services in connection with housing and social
services duties and functions, as set out in our recent strategy
for tackling homelessness, "Sustainable Communities: settled
homes, changing lives" and in the Government's recent
response to the ODPM Select Committee report on homelessness.
During the development of local homelessness strategies in
2002-03, and subsequently, all local authorities have received
homelessness grants from ODPM. These have provided an additional
resource for them to set up and provide new services to reduce
rough sleeping, avoid the use of B&B hotels as long-term accommodation
for families, and achieve other positive outcomes, including more
effective prevention of homelessness. In many cases, ODPM grants
have enabled authorities to take forward initiatives identified
in strategies where other appropriate sources of funding had not
been identified. From a survey in 2002-03, we know that local
authorities were using homelessness grants to adopt a number of
new approaches to prevention:
124 were increasing their own staff resources to improve services
108 were providing support targeted at young people
107 were establishing/expanding new rent deposit schemes
97 were improving the provision of advice on housing options
and homelessness prevention
80 were establishing or expanding mediation services, particularly
for families.
Many of these approaches are delivering savings for local
authorities which may be re-invested in improved homelessness
services. The Comptroller & Auditor General's Report says
that "moving people out of bed and breakfast accommodation
has delivered cost savings for local authorities, which may amount
to £40-£50 million each year."
In another ODPM survey, local authorities estimated that
planned action on homelessness prevention in 2003-04 would enable
them to save an average of £164,000 per authority while,
for the same year, 82 local authorities had established "invest
to save" budgets with an average value of £143,000 per
authority.
Our homelessness strategy, "Sustainable Communities:
settled homes, changing lives" confirms a 23% increase
in homelessness grants to local authorities and voluntary sector
agencies, rising to £74 million in 2007-08. We have also
said that future allocations will be used to support action that
meets our aim to prevent homelessness and halve use of temporary
accommodation by 2010, that we will consider ways in which greater
certainty can be given on likely grant levels beyond a single
financial year, and that we will look for new ways to encourage
innovation.
Q123-125-127—HOUSING NEED
The Review of Housing Supply, "Delivering Stability:
Securing our Future Housing Needs", conducted by Kate
Barker reinforces ODPM's analysis, calling for a step-change increase
in housing supply.
Several of the Committee of Public Accounts members' questions
focused on Figure 7 on page 29 of the Comptroller and Auditor
General's Report, "More than a roof: Progress in tackling
homelessness". This repeated a number of estimates of
housing need, drawn from Table 5.2. on page 93 of the Barker review,
which drew on work by Alan Holmans from 1996 to estimate the backlog
of households in housing need.
The Barker review itself says of the Holmans work that "It
is very broad: it is not necessarily just a measure of housing
undersupply" and that it is "largely a frictional backlog,
which could be reduced by better use of the existing housing stock
and more rapid administrative systems". Not everyone regarded
as being in housing need will need social housing. That is why
it is not appropriate to compare the backlog estimate only with
the number of new social rented homes being provided.
The Barker review included estimates of newly arising need
as well as the backlog of housing need. It concluded that an extra
17,000 social rented homes would be needed per year to deal with
newly arising need and 23,000 to tackle new and backlog need.
However, the review also recognised, in paragraph 5.36, that:
"New units and the investment required to deliver them
could not be delivered immediately due to capacity constraints
and the need to identify where supply can best be located to meet
demand. Increasing social housing provision should therefore be
managed in a staged way to ensure capacity to deliver and value
for money are maintained."
Investment decisions reached in the 2004 Spending Review
provide for a good start on this managed increase in social housing
supply, enabling increases that deliver an extra 10,000 social
rented homes by 2007-08.
However, new and existing housing need will be met through
the whole range of measures included in ODPM's recent five year
plan for housing, "Sustainable Communities: Homes for
All". These include:
— delivering 1.1 million new homes in the wider
South East by 2016
— helping into home ownership 80,000 households,
most of whom are currently renting privately or living with family—and,
as announced in the Budget, work to use the resources of the private
sector to bolster ODPM's low cost home ownership schemes could
help a further 20,000 (subject to the outcome of our discussions
with the Council of Mortgage Lenders)
— introducing an extended Homebuy scheme—there
are up to 300,000 council and housing association tenants unable
to afford the Right To Buy or Acquire who might be able to afford
to buy a share of their home under such a scheme
— increasing investment in new social rented homes
to provide 75,000 homes in total over the next three years, including
6,300 through the Housing Private Finance Initiative—a 50%
increase in supply delivering an extra 10,000 homes per year by
2007-08
— making better use of existing housing—for
example by expanding choice based lettings, improving mobility
through moveUK, improving the quality and availability
of private rented homes (including action on empty homes to bring
25,000 back into use by 2010)
— increasing funding for action to prevent homelessness
by 23%, up from £60 million now to £74 million by 2007-08—a
total of £200 million over the next three years
Through these measures, the Government aims to offer everyone
the opportunity of a decent home at a price they can afford.
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