Homelessness in England is up 6.8% on the previous year - with thousands in temporary housing

Some 298,430 households in England became homeless or were at risk of becoming homeless, including 104,460 families with children between April 2022 and March this year.

That’s according to the latest government figures which also show the number of households in temporary accommodation was 104,510 - the highest on record.

The data, published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), also reveals that the number of people facing homelessness because they received a so-called ‘no-fault’ eviction notice increased by 27.4% to 24,260.

In the same period, there was also a 30.5% increase in people assessed by local authorities as sleeping rough.

In a strategy published last year, the Conservative government promised “bold commitments” to tackle rough sleeping as well as £2 billion (€2.29bn) of funding over the next three years.

It also said it would invest a further billion between 2022 and 2025 in the Homelessness Prevention Grant which is meant to fund local authorities to work with landlords to prevent evictions as well as offering financial support for people to find a new home and move out of temporary accommodation.

Many are now questioning whether or not the government has lived up to those promises.

In London alone, tackling the homelessness crisis is contributing to a staggering £500 million (€547m) shortfall in councils’ budgets.

The stark findings come alongside more figures released by the DLUHC, which shows that councils across England spent a record amount of money last year tackling homelessness.

At least £2.4bn (€2.75bn) was spent tackling the problem in 2022/23 and over £1.7bn (€1.95bn) of that amount was used to pay for temporary accommodation.

The worst affected areas were the North West and