To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many households in (a) South Cambridgeshire and (b) East Cambridgeshire were accepted as homeless in each year since 1997. (153763)

Information about local authorities’ actions under homelessness legislation is collected quarterly at local authority level, in respect of households rather than people.

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.

This data is published in our quarterly statistical release on Statutory Homelessness, which includes a Supplementary Table showing the breakdown of key data, including acceptances, by each local authority. This table is published on our website and placed in the Library each quarter. The latest release was published on 10 September 2007 and contains data for the period April to June 2007:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/homelessnessstatistics/publicationshomelessness/

A summary table showing the total number of households accepted as owed the main homelessness duty for East and South Cambridgeshire is as follows.