Rise in rough sleeping a warning for next Government

Another large increase in the numbers of people sleeping rough should sound alarm for the next Government.

With one week to go before the General Election, the latest rise of 19 percent in the annual rough sleeping CHAIN figures is a timely reminder of the mounting homelessness crisis facing the next Government.

The London CHAIN (Combined Homelessness and Information Network) figures*, which are the most detailed data on rough sleeping in England, show:

• A total of 11,993 people were seen rough sleeping in London in 2023/24. 
• This is a 19% increase on 2022/23, compared to a 21% increase between 2021/22 and 2022/23. 
• The 2023/24 total is 58% higher than the total of 7,581 people seen rough sleeping ten years ago, in 2014/15. 
• 7,974 people were seen rough sleeping for the first time this year. This is a 25% increase on the number of new rough sleepers in 2022/23.
• 2023/24 was the first year in which more than 2,000 people have been recorded rough sleeping on CHAIN in a single month, with both September and November 2023 exceeding that threshold.

The Salvation Army is calling for the new Government to make ending rough sleeping a prime concern of its parliamentary term. 

To help achieve this, the church and charity wants to see a change to homelessness legislation so that people who are currently not eligible for priority need are then not forced to live on the streets. 

Director of The Salvation Army Homeless Services, Nick Redmore, said: 

“When the newly elected Prime Minister closes the door at Number Ten, just streets away, people will be trying to find a safe place to sleep for the night. They will be running the country at a time when rough sleeping is at its highest in four years. However, there is still time to reverse the rise in homelessness and rough sleeping. The Salvation Army is calling for ending rough sleeping to be a priority for the next Government.”

The Salvation Army is calling for the Government to:  

• 
  Extend priority need for homelessness support to include people who are sleeping rough. 
• Commit to abolishing priority need within the next decade.
• Commit to a sustained investment and increase in housing stock and especially social housing, to meet the needs of the growing numbers of people experiencing homelessness.
• Introduce the same recording system of the rough sleeping population as in London (CHAIN statistics) to other cities and regions in the UK with high levels of homelessness, providing detailed information on the number of homeless people across the whole country in need of support.