2nd
Jul 2024
Over 20% of people in the UK believe they or family members, friends or acquaintances could become homeless during the next twelve months.
The majority of the populace (77%) want the incoming and future governments to provide support and take the lead in building more social homes to help address and hopefully in the near future resolve this issue.
A social enterprise company Places for People’s latest study claims that 21% of people in the UK are afraid that they or people they know will be made homeless in the next twelve months.
And of course private and social tenants have even higher numbers of people fearing the outcome with 30% of private and 29% of social renters as well as 15% of homeowners.
The latest government figures show that in one night in Autumn 2023 3,898 people were counted across England sleeping rough and in Wales there were 121 sleeping on the streets.
In Scotland 2,438 households stated they had slept rough for up to three months before asking for support during 2022/2023.
Recent government data shows households in temporary accommodation has the highest numbers ever with 112,000 in England, 15,625 in Scotland and 5,700 in Wales.
Other recent data shows there are 1.29 million households in England waiting on the social housing list, 110,900 in Scotland and 90,000 in Wales.
The 80% majority of people said they believe that the homeless crisis is a major national disaster and 77% want the government to build more social homes to try to solve the problem.
A spokesperson for Places for People says: “These figures should alarm us all. What we found has bluntly exposed the worry that exists throughout the country. Sadly, however, they do not come as a surprise - for too long we have been highlighting the seriousness of the ever-growing homelessness crisis facing the UK.
“With renters in both social and private properties most concerned, everything people are telling us points towards a desperate need to build more social homes, although delivering the right mix of all tenures remains vital to ease overall pressure.
“As a sector, the concerns we have raised time and time again around the need for more social homes have not been listened to by government in recent years. So, we are now urging whoever forms the next government to listen to the people of the UK and put delivering more social homes at the top of your priority list. Talking’s over, it’s time to build.”
News Archive »