Information about English local authorities’ actions under the homelessness legislation (part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) is collected quarterly at local authority level. The Department does not hold statistics for the devolved Administrations. Local authorities within West Yorkshire are as follows; Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield.
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 secure 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.
Information is also collected on the number of people who sleep rough—that is, those who are literally roofless on a single night.
Summary tables showing the total number of households (a) accepted as owed a main homelessness duty and (b) in temporary accommodation for each year since 1997-98, and (c) rough sleeper estimates for each year since 1998, for each local authority, were provided in my answer given to the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Mr. Spring) on 26 November 2008, Official Report, columns 1499-1500W, and are available in the Library. An extract showing data for the last five years for the local authorities within West Yorkshire is provided in the following tables:
2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 Bradford 1,038 903 603 868 837 Calderdale 502 1— 347 171 115 Kirklees 1,545 1,550 1,041 800 1— Leeds 4,948 2,782 1,882 1,707 1,142 Wakefield 459 326 1— 165 136 England2 135,430 120,860 93,980 73,360 63,170
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Bradford 47 62 64 83 90 Calderdale 50 71 76 53 46 Kirklees 239 259 291 203 137 Leeds 748 501 502 548 401 Wakefield 235 242 131 94 78 England2 97,680 101,070 96,370 87,120 77,510
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Bradford 0 0 0 0 0 Calderdale 2 0 0 0 1 Kirklees 0 0 0 3 0 Leeds 4 4 1 1 6 Wakefield 3 3 0 0 0 England 508 459 502 498 483 1 Denotes data not reported by local authority 2 Figures that include estimates of missing data
Figures for acceptances and temporary accommodation can be found in our quarterly statistical release on statutory homelessness. This is published on our website and placed in the Library each quarter. The latest release was published on 11 December 2008, and provides national and regional acceptance figures in table 3, and temporary accommodation figures in table 7, both back to 1997-98:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/840324.xls
English rough sleeper estimates and the count guidance are published and can be found at the following web address;
http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/homelessness/roughsleeping/