Further 2,700 were threatened with homelessness Family is made homeless every five hours in county

A family became every five hours in last year.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show that 1,895 households were owed a homelessness relief duty from April 2018 to March 2019.

The service is offered to homeless people by the council, which has to take reasonable steps to help applicants secure suitable accommodation with a reasonable prospect that it will be available for their occupation for at least six months.

A further 2,717 Leicestershire households were threatened homeless Leicestershire with homelessness over the 12 months. That means they were issued with an eviction notice by their landlord.

The Government changed the way it recorded statutory homelessness back in April 2018, meaning current statistics can no longer be compared to ones published before that date.

However one homelessness statistic that remains broadly comparable is the number of households being put up in temporary accommodation, such as B&Bs and hostels.

There were 171 households being temporarily housed at the end of March, up from 161 at the same point last year.

The statistics show that a household became homeless every four minutes in England in the last year

March 2019).

The number of households in temporary accommodation was up 5% on the year before – and up 76.5% on the low of 48,010 at the end of 2010.

Polly Neate, chief executive at Shelter, a housing and homelessness charity, called on the Government to increase housing benefit and invest in new social housing.

She said: “During a year where Brexit negotiations have totally dominated the political agenda, catastrophic numbers of people have become homeless. While the housing crisis is out of the spotlight, families with young children are trapped in grim temporary accommodation like B&Bs and shipping (April 2018 to containers, and young people feel the damaging effects of growing up in a housing emergency.

“Cripplingly expensive private rents, frozen housing benefits, and lengthy waiting lists for social homes are pushing people to the sharp edge of a housing emergency which won’t go away without genuinely affordable homes.”

Jon Sparkes, chief executive at Crisis, the national charity for homeless people, said: “Everyone has the right to a decent home, and it’s great to see the success the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) has had in its first year, preventing nearly 60,000 households becoming homeless in England.

“Despite this over 7,000 households are currently in B&Bs, unable to access safe and secure accommodation.

“Our clients tell us of damaged, and even dangerous conditions, where they lack basic cooking and laundry facilities and face the constant pressure eviction at short notice. No one should have to live like this.

“We know we can do better. The HRA has great potential, but it can only go so far when people are being pushed to the brink, struggling to meet the cost of housing.”

In a recent Facebook Live stream, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would appoint a homelessness “tsar”, and that he would be outlining a national plan to tackle homelessness soon.