1. Homelessness – NAO Report Aileen Murphie: Director MHCLG/LG VFM
March 2018

2. Overview | Key findings
Homelessness by all its measures has increased since
Ending of private sector tenancies has overtaken all other causes to become the biggest single driver of statutory homelessness in England
Funding switch between preventative spend and reactive spend
LAs increasingly constrained in finding solutions to homelessness
We are not going to tell you what you already will have heard and know – that homelessness is going up and it is down to the end of private sector tenancies. We have some other key findings that use new analysis – but for the full picture you should look at the report.

3. Key finding | All measures of homelessness have increased
You all know that the end of assured shorthold tenancy is now the leading cause of statutory homelessness. We have highlighted the impact of affordability on turnover in the private rented market. With rent growing faster than earnings, it is more difficult to find suitable affordable accommodation in some areas. There is a correlation between homelessness and affordability – the least affordable 25% of authorities have seen homelessness rise by 25% since The most affordable 25% have seen homelessness fall by 8%.

4. Key finding | Ending of AST has risen markedly
You all know that the end of assured shorthold tenancy is now the leading cause of statutory homelessness. We have highlighted the impact of affordability on turnover in the private rented market. With rent growing faster than earnings, it is more difficult to find suitable affordable accommodation in some areas. There is a correlation between homelessness and affordability – the least affordable 25% of authorities have seen homelessness rise by 25% since The most affordable 25% have seen homelessness fall by 8%.

5. Key finding | Affordability has contributed to homelessness
Since 2010, the cost of private rented accommodation has increased three times faster than earnings across England.
In London, the increase was eight times, with private rents rising by 24% and average earnings increasing by 3%.
Homelessness tends to be higher in places where private rents have increased most since
You all know that the end of assured shorthold tenancy is now the leading cause of statutory homelessness. We have highlighted the impact of affordability on turnover in the private rented market. With rent growing faster than earnings, it is more difficult to find suitable affordable accommodation in some areas. There is a correlation between homelessness and affordability – the least affordable 25% of authorities have seen homelessness rise by 25% since The most affordable 25% have seen homelessness fall by 8%.

6. Key finding | Changes to Local Housing Allowance have contributed to the affordability of tenancies
In inner London, 24% of the 35,400 claimants who moved did so to areas where market rents were at least 20% lower.
Outside of inner London, only 3% of claimants who moved did so to areas where market rents were at least 20% lower.
We have mapped the movement of LHA claimants between local authorities. People have been moving to the outer ring of London, where rents are cheaper. You can look at each local authority’s movement on the data visualisation.

7. Key finding | LAs have increased spending on homelessness and reduced spending on prevention
Local authorities are prioritising funding for temporary accommodation, because they have a legal obligation to meet this need.
The £998 million reduction in spending on other housing services has largely been taken from the Supporting People programme.
Spending on this has fallen by 59% in real terms since (from £1.44 billion to £588 million).
Homelessness services now make up 40p in every pound spent on housing services, up from 25p in The fall in other housing services has largely been taken from the Supporting People programme. This is one of the components of housing services that has the potential to prevent homelessness, but is not a statutory area of spending.

8. Local efforts - accommodation
Repurposing assets (Bushmere House, Birmingham)
Vacant land (Ladywell, Lewisham)
The Department should work with local authorities to ensure that they are making the most effective use of temporary accommodation. This work should include enabling local authorities to increase their use of the innovative short-term solutions that they are taking.
We visited Bushmere House (below) and Ladywell (right). Bushmere was a residential care home and is now temporary accommodation for families. Ladywell is demountable temporary accommodation on vacant land following the clearance of a leisure centre. We have made a recommendation that the Department works with local authorities to promote innovative solutions that are more effective than alternatives (such as bed & breakfast).

9. Interactive data visualisation
The visualisation is available on our website: Key findings are in the summary.
The interactive visualisation describes changes in homelessness in England since You can use it to explore the broad trends identified by our report Homelessness and build a richer understanding of what these trends mean for different parts of the country.
Some examples (but you need to play online for the full effect).
Do have a look online. You can zoom into individual local authority areas and compare their trends to the national trend.

10. Reasons for homelessness – in the South West…
End of assured shorthold tenancy is behind 32% of 4,410 cases in …

11. Actions needed…NAO recommendations
Monitor the effect of the Housing Reduction Act
a cross-government strategy for reducing homelessness
steps to eliminate the use of non-decent temporary accommodation
the supply of new genuinely affordable housing needs to be matched to housing need
new homelessness data system needs to help increase effectiveness of services
DWP needs to identify how welfare reform is impacting on homelessness and how that can be mitigated
We expect that PAC will hold an evidence session, leading to recommendations, and that this will add to the future developments that we are keeping an eye on. We may return to this topic in the future to see how the Department is getting on with implementing those recommendations.

12. PAC report recommendations
Cross-government strategy for reducing homelessness
MHCLG and DWP should work together to ensure that clear progress is made.
DWP should identify elements of welfare reform impacting on homelessness and what it is doing to mitigate them.
the supply of new genuinely affordable housing needs to be matched to housing need
new homelessness data system needs to help increase effectiveness of services
We expect that PAC will hold an evidence session, leading to recommendations, and that this will add to the future developments that we are keeping an eye on. We may return to this topic in the future to see how the Department is getting on with implementing those recommendations.