Information about local authorities’ actions under homelessness legislation is collected quarterly at local authority level, in respect of households rather than people. There are five local authorities in the Tees Valley sub-region: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees. The constituency of Hartlepool comprises the local authority of Hartlepool.
Information reported each quarter by local authorities about their activities under homelessness legislation includes the number of households accepted by local authorities as eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and in priority need, and therefore owed a main homelessness duty.
The duty owed to an accepted household 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. The number of households in temporary accommodation arranged by the councils under homelessness legislation, as at the end of each quarter, is reported by local authorities, and includes both those households who have been accepted as owed the main homelessness duty, and those for which inquiries are pending.
These are data published in our quarterly statistical release on Statutory Homelessness, which includes a Supplementary Table showing the breakdown of key data, including acceptances and temporary accommodation, by each local authority. This is published on our website and placed in the Library each quarter.
Since 1998, information has also been collected on the number of people who sleep rough—that is, those who are literally roofless on a single night—and these are also published on our website, by local authority.
Summary tables showing the total number of households (a) accepted under homelessness provisions and (b) in temporary accommodation, from 1997-98 to 2005-06, and (c) rough sleeper estimates from 1998 onwards, for each local authority (including those within the Tees Valley sub-region), were placed in the Library in response to the answer given on 23 October 2006, Official Report, columns 1663-64W, to my hon. Friend the Member for the Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane).