Information about English local authorities' actions under the homelessness legislation (Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) is collected quarterly at local authority level. Data collected include 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 (to ensure that suitable accommodation is available). If a settled home is not immediately available, the authority must secure temporary accommodation until a settled home becomes available.
The question asks for figures for the month of December. The total number of households accepted as owed a main homelessness duty (‘acceptances') are collected on a quarterly basis and not broken down to a monthly level, and therefore our figures cover the period October to December. Numbers in temporary accommodation are as of 31 December for each year.
The following table lists the number of acceptances and number of households in temporary accommodation for Reading local authority, in quarter four 1998 to 2008;
Number of acceptances October-December Households in temporary accommodation on 31 December 1998 121 388 1999 88 1— 2000 116 441 2001 105 477 2002 91 448 2003 70 339 2004 51 239 2005 69 214 2006 39 177 2007 39 144 1 Denotes data not reported by authority
Annual rough sleeping figures for Reading borough council have been collected since 1998 and are published yearly in September. The figures are based on local authority street counts.
Number of rough sleepers in Reading borough council 1998 13 1999 5 2000 9 2001 18 2002 7 2003 4 2004 6 2005 11 2006 2 2007 15 2008 6
Revenue funding for local authority homelessness services is principally provided through revenue support grant which is unhypothecated. The Government additionally provide homelessness grants to support all local housing authorities' strategies for tackling and preventing all forms of homelessness, including rough sleeping.
The following table shows total allocations of homelessness grant to Reading borough council for each of the years from 2003-04 to 2008-09.
Homelessness grant (£) 2003-04 393,339 2004-05 250,000 2005-06 250,000 2006-07 250,000 2007-08 250,000 2008-09 1250,000 1 To date
Prior to 2003-04 funding was given direct to voluntary organisations. The Department did not provide any direct funding to voluntary organisations in Reading.
In 2003 every local authority was required to put in place a homelessness strategy to prevent homelessness and provide accommodation and support. It is for local authorities to decide how to use their homelessness grant to effectively deliver their strategies.
Reading borough council also received £878,000 of Hostels Capital Improvement Programme funding over three years to 2007-08.
On 5 December 2007, we announced homelessness grant funding of at least £150 million over the three years 2008-11 to continue to support local authorities to tackle and prevent homelessness. This is the biggest ever cash injection for homelessness services.
The latest official figures published in September 2008 show six rough sleepers were found in the street count carried out by Reading borough council.