Homelessness Rises by 20% in East of England, Shelter Reports

The charity Shelter has reported a 20% increase in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness in the East of England over the past 12 months. According to its annual assessment, approximately 24,000 people in the region were without a home, including 11,500 children. Luton and Bedford, along with Basildon in Essex, registered the highest figures for homelessness across eastern England when measured by council district. In Luton, the rate of homelessness was determined to be one in every 57 people. This contrasts with East Cambridgeshire, which recorded the region’s lowest figures at one in every 2,741. Basildon ranked as the second highest, with a homelessness rate of one every 94, while Bedford’s count was one in every 103. Peterborough occupied the ninth position in these rankings, with one in every 230 residents either lacking a home or residing in temporary accommodation. Within Norfolk’s districts, Great Yarmouth recorded the highest number of homeless individuals in the county, at one in every 542, whereas Norwich had the lowest at one in 1,674. For Suffolk, East Suffolk emerged as the district with the highest count, showing one in 624 people experiencing homelessness. Ipswich’s figure stood at one in 767, and West Suffolk registered the lowest number at one in 1,101. Shelter’s examination, which utilized official homelessness data and responses to Freedom of Information requests, identified 337 individuals sleeping rough in the region on an average night, marking an 18% increase from 2023. Southend-on-Sea recorded the highest statistic, with 35 people residing on the streets on any given night in 2024. The homelessness charity attributed the causes of homelessness to “record private rents combined with inadequate housing benefit, rising evictions and a lack of genuinely affordable social homes.” While local councils typically place homeless families in temporary accommodation, the charity discovered that “this accommodation is far from temporary, as the government’s own data showed that one in five (22%) of families in the East of England have been there for over two years.” The charity suggested that the actual figures might be higher, given that certain forms of homelessness, such as sofa-surfing, are not officially documented. Lesley Burdett, the Norwich service lead at Shelter, commented: “It’s unimaginable that almost 24,000 people in the East of England will spend this winter homeless – many of them forced to shiver on the wet streets or in a mouldy hostel room with their entire family.” She added, “Across the East of England, extortionate private rents combined with a dire lack of genuinely affordable social homes is trapping more and more people in homelessness.” Burdett urged the government to prioritize the construction of “much needed” social homes. In response, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government issued a statement, saying: “These figures are shocking and they show the devastating reality of the homelessness crisis which we have inherited.” The ministry stated its commitment of £1bn in funding to bolster homelessness services and affirmed it would be “building the social and affordable homes we need as part of our Plan for Change.” Additional measures include the formation of a new inter-ministerial group “dedicated to tackling the root causes of homelessness.”