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Tackling rough sleeping

This debate pack contains background information on rough sleeping, as well as some suggested further reading materials which Members may find useful in preparation for this debate.

Rough sleeping can be caused by a complex interplay between individual and structural factors such as relationship breakdowns and limited availability of affordable and social housing.

Local authorities have some duties towards people who are experiencing homelessness, but they are not obliged to secure accommodation for all of them.

The previous Conservative government committed to end rough sleeping by the end of 2024. It published the Ending Rough Sleeping for Good strategy and used other policy measures too.

The new Labour government have said they will “develop a new cross-government strategy to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness”.

What is rough sleeping?

Rough sleeping is an especially visible type of homelessness. Government guidance (for data reporting purposes) defines rough sleeping as:

• people sleeping, about to bed down (sitting on/in or standing next to their bedding) or actually bedded down in the open air (such as on the streets, in tents, doorways, parks, bus shelters or encampments)
• people in buildings or other places not designed for habitation (such as stairwells, barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations, or ‘bashes’).

Causes of rough sleeping

Research into the causes of rough sleeping has identified several causes, including:

• relationship breakdown
• benefit changes that affect single people’s ability to find and keep affordable private rented housing:
• poor mental and physical health, including substance dependence
• lack of suitable, affordable housing options for single people with multiple support needs

In March 2019, the Conservative government published a report on the causes of homelessness and rough sleeping. The report acknowledged “the circumstances in which families become homeless tend to differ from those of single homeless individuals”.

Statistics on rough sleepers

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) publishes a ‘snapshot’ figure of the number of people sleeping rough on a given night in autumn in England.

Local authorities produce either a count of people sleeping rough in their area, or an estimate in collaboration with local organisations. The resulting statistics give an idea of the number of people sleeping rough on a single night in this period, rather than a complete picture of the number of people sleeping rough across the year.

The latest data is for autumn 2023, when an estimated 3,898 people slept rough on a single night in England. This is a 27% increase compared with the previous year’s estimate (3,069 people).

The number of people sleeping rough peaked in 2017 at 4,751 people. Numbers fell substantially during the covid-19 pandemic as the government implemented policies to reduce rough sleeping, and reached a low point of 2,443 in 2021. However, the estimate has risen in each year since then.

Data for individual local authorities is published in tables accompanying MHCLG’s statistical release (Excel file).

Additional data on rough sleeping is available for London. The Greater London Authority and the homelessness charity Homelessness Link maintain the CHAIN database, which records all contact between rough sleepers and outreach workers in London.

According to the latest CHAIN annual report, 11,993 people were recorded who had slept rough in London at any point during the 2023/24 financial year.