Number of rough sleepers has fallen by a third

THE NUMBER of people estimated to be sleeping rough fell by more than a third in a year, figures show.

There were 2,688 people estimated to be sleeping rough on any single night in England during October and November, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said.

This is the third consecutive annual fall and a drop of 37 per cent compared with 2019.

But it remains 52 per cent higher than the number estimated in 2010, when the “snapshot” approach was first introduced.

Local authorities said the fall was due to the Government’s Everyone In scheme, with councils instructed to rapidly rehouse thousands of rough sleepers at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Rough Sleeping Initiative that was launched in 2018.

The ministry said other factors to be considered when comparing the annual snapshots were the weather, movement across local authority boundaries, the date and time of the snapshot and availability of night shelters.

The snapshot coincided with a national lockdown throughout November and tier restrictions in October.

Similar to previous years, most rough sleepers were believed to be male, over 26 and from the UK.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said he was “heartened” by the fall and said the priority was to “maintain this momentum”, promising a “marriage of health and housing”.

He said more recent data, while not official, showed the total number of people estimated to be sleeping rough fell further to 1,461 at the end of January.

Some 205 councils had falls in their rough sleeper estimates from 2019, 78 had rises and 31 had no change.

Thirty areas were recorded as having no rough sleepers.