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Homelessness: Greater London

Volume 457: debated on Monday 5 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the number of homeless people in (a) England, (b) Greater London, (c) the London borough of Havering and (d) Romford constituency. (124817)

Information about local authorities' actions under homelessness legislation is collected in respect of households, rather than persons, and at local authority rather than constituency level.

This is summarised in a quarterly statistical release on statutory homelessness, the latest of which was published by Communities and Local Government on 11 December. It is available on our website:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1002882&PressNoticeID=2309

and also in the Library.

Table 3 shows the number of households accepted by local housing authorities as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need (and therefore owed a main homelessness duty), for both England and London. Table 7 shows the number of households in temporary accommodation arranged under homelessness legislation, again for both England and London.

The supplementary table presents this key information at local authority level, and includes the London borough of Havering. Data is not available at constituency level, but the constituency of Romford falls entirely within Havering.

The duty owed to a person accepted as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need is to secure suitable accommodation. If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority may secure temporary accommodation until a settled home becomes available.

Information is also collected separately by the Department on the number of people who sleep rough, that is, those who are literally roofless on a single night. This information is presented at local authority (rather than constituency) level on our website at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=l150131