News from Tom Copley (past staff): Government has turned its back on the homeless

08 November 2017

Responding to today’s report from Shelter which found that more than 300,000 people in Britain are homeless, with all but two of the worst 20 boroughs in London, Labour’s London Assembly Housing Spokesperson, Tom Copley AM, said:

“Recently the National Audit Office warned that government welfare policies are directly contributing to the homelessness crisis. These appalling figures show that the Government has wilfully turned its back on those who’ve had the misfortune to find themselves homeless.

“With the need for 66,000 new homes a year to tackle London’s housing crisis - the majority of which must be genuinely affordable - the Government cannot miss the opportunity at this year’s budget to hand the Mayor the funding to make this happen.

“Right now we’ve got a Prime Minister who has prioritised pumping £10 billion into Help to Buy, inflating house prices in the process, rather than committing the funding to build hundreds of thousands of much needed social houses. The need to pave the way for longer tenancies doesn’t even appear to be on the Government’s radar and they chose capping benefits over capping rent increases.

“The Mayor has pledged £9 million a year to tackle rough sleeping, but this must be matched by determined action from the Government to tackle the chronic shortage of affordable housing and abandon their punitive welfare cuts and caps.

“We know so much about the causes of homelessness, but if we don’t start applying the solutions this picture is only going to become even more bleak.”

Notes to editors

In September, a report from the National Audit Office criticised the government’s ‘light touch’ on dealing with homeslessness;
Research from Shelter shows that 307,000 people are homeless in Britain today (Shelter’s review combined official rough-sleeping, temporary accommodation, and social services figures);
Research from Shelter, in the table below, sets out the top 50 areas with the highest rates of recorded as homelessness. Only two boroughs in the top 20 are outside London:

Table 1: Top 50 areas with highest rates of recorded as homelessness (comprises temp. accommodation and rough sleeping figures only)

Local Authority	Region	Number of people living in TA	Number of people rough sleeping	Total homeless people	Total people	1 in x people are homeless	National Rank
Newham	London	13,566	41	13,607	340,978	25	1
Haringey	London	9,688	29	9,717	278,451	29	2
Westminster	London	7,794	260	8,054	247,614	31	3
Enfield	London	10,051	6	10,057	331,395	33	4
Kens & Chels	London	4,387	14	4,401	156,726	36	5
Waltham Forest	London	7,587	47	7,634	275,843	36	6
Brent	London	8,881	24	8,905	328,254	37	7
Barking & Dag	London	5,573	5	5,578	206,460	37	8
Tower Hamlets	London	7,417	11	7,428	304,854	41	9
Hackney	London	6,150	17	6,167	273,526	44	10
Redbridge	London	6,197	60	6,257	299,249	48	11
Lewisham	London	6,198	16	6,214	301,867	49	12
Hamm & Fulham	London	3,515	6	3,521	179,654	51	13
Luton	East of England	4,113	76	4,189	216,791	52	14
Ealing	London	6,529	27	6,556	343,196	52	15
Croydon	London	7,007	68	7,075	382,304	54	16
Barnet	London	7,011	22	7,033	386,083	55	17
Lambeth	London	5,656	17	5,673	327,910	58	18
Southwark	London	4,955	32	4,987	313,223	63	19
Brighton & Hove	South East	4,074	144	4,218	289,229	69	20
Wandsworth	London	4,590	5	4,595	316,096	69	21
Bromley	London	4,478	3	4,481	326,889	73	22
Broxbourne	East of England	1,301	3	1,304	96,779	74	23
Bexley	London	2,918	11	2,929	244,760	84	24
Birmingham	West Midlands	12,730	55	12,785	1,124,569	88	25
Kingston	London	1,910	23	1,933	176,107	91	26
Hounslow	London	2,744	34	2,778	271,139	98	27
Harrow	London	2,358	10	2,368	248,752	105	28
Milton Keynes	South East	2,358	38	2,396	264,479	110	29
Islington	London	1,916	11	1,927	232,865	121	30
Harlow	East of England	681	20	701	85,995	123	31
City of London	London	25	50	75	9,401	125	32
Havering	London	1,932	24	1,956	252,783	129	33
Slough	South East	1,092	25	1,117	147,181	132	34
Hillingdon	London	2,166	28	2,194	302,471	138	35
Watford	East of England	662	13	675	96,773	143	36
Sutton	London	1,331	8	1,339	202,220	151	37
Manchester	North West	3,433	78	3,511	541,263	154	38
Gosport	South East	527	6	533	85,363	160	39
Dartford	South East	633	9	642	105,543	164	40
Reading	South East	956	22	978	162,666	166	41
Bristol, City of	South West	2,600	74	2,674	454,213	170	42
Basildon	East of England	1,062	17	1,079	183,378	170	43
Dacorum	East of England	867	6	873	152,692	175	44
Epsom & Ewell	South East	425	3	428	79,588	186	45
Peterborough	East of England	1,021	21	1,042	197,095	189	46
Camden	London	1,254	17	1,271	246,181	194	47
New Forest	South East	886	4	890	179,236	201	48
Greenwich	London	1,379	8	1,387	279,766	202	49
Chelmsford	East of England	817	14	831	174,089	209	50
Compiled from official statistics on temporary accommodation (as at Q2 2017) and rough sleeping (Autumn 2016). TA figures adjusted to estimate total number of people (adults and children), rather than households.

Tom Copley AM is a Londonwide Assembly Member

For more information please contact London Assembly Labour Group senior press officer, Alison Orlandi, on 020 7983 4952. Number not for publication.

Need a document on this page in an accessible format?

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of a PDF or other document on this page in a more accessible format, please get in touch via our online form and tell us which format you need.

It will also help us if you tell us which assistive technology you use. We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.