Homelessness: West Yorkshire Greg Mulholland To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people were recorded as homeless in (a) Leeds, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) the UK in each of the last five years. Mr. Iain Wright 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 authority2 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/