Number Of Rough Sleepers Five Times Higher Than Government Estimates

More than 28,000 people in the UK were recorded sleeping rough in 12 months, research by the BBC has suggested.

In England five times as many rough sleepers were seen by councils in the year than reported in official figures, which are a one-night snapshot. Labour’s shadow housing secretary, John Healey, has called for an investigation into the government’s published statistics, calling them “misleading”.

The government said it was providing £437m this year to tackle homelessness. It said it believed the official snapshot was a “good estimate” of rough sleeping “on a given night.”

New official figures for 2018 showed 4,677 people slept rough in England on the one night the snapshot survey was taken, down 2% on the year before but 165% up on 2010. However, council responses to the BBC showed nearly 25,000 people were recorded sleeping rough at least once in England during the latest year on record.

The BBC asked councils for the number of individuals amid concerns raised last year that the official one-night snapshot did not give the full picture. Mr Healey said he had written to the UK Statistics Authority to ask them to investigate the accuracy of the government’s statistics.

He said: “These figures expose the shameful scale of rough sleeping on our country’s streets. They also confirm that the government’s own published statistics are seriously misleading and an unreliable undercount of the number of people sleeping rough.”

The government publishes figures for rough sleeping based on the numbers of people seen or estimated to be sleeping rough in each local authority in England on one night in autumn. The BBC asked councils how many individuals they recorded sleeping rough at any stage in 2019 – whether they slept rough once or multiple times – and three quarters replied with figures. Some councils, including Wigan and Doncaster, were unable to provide figures for the number of individuals over the year.

Even among those who did it was not possible to say how many of those recorded may have also slept rough in another area. This means some people may have been counted more than once.

In Wales, the total was 599 rough sleepers but most councils referred to Welsh government statistics rather than providing full-year figures. In Scotland the 2,800 recorded came mainly from housing applications in which people said they slept rough during the previous three months. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive only provided an estimate based on a single night snapshot, when it found 38.

In London councils referred to CHAIN, a database managed by the charity St Mungo’s with the latest full year figures covering 2018-19. In 2019 the Office for Statistical Regulation (OSR) said it expected the government to “plan for better statistics on rough sleeping”. A spokeswoman said the OSR “hopes to see the inclusion of improved guidance which clearly sets out the limitations of the current annual snapshot approach in England”.

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: “Rough sleeping is the most brutal form of homelessness but we still do not have a clear picture of how many people are forced to sleep on our streets throughout the year. While the current government statistics on rough sleeping are a useful snapshot, based on counting people seen on one night, this cannot hope to accurately reflect the real scale of the problem.”

The Local Government Association has called for the government to restore local housing allowance rates to cover at least the lowest third of market rents. Housing spokesman, Councillor David Renard, said local authorities needed the power to start a “renaissance in council house-building”, adding: “Money allocated to councils is increasingly being spent on providing temporary accommodation, meaning there is less for other homelessness services.”

A Government spokesman said: “We’re committed to eliminating rough sleeping by the end of the Parliament and our efforts have already led to the first nationwide fall in a decade. We’re confident our independently verified snapshot provides a good estimate of the numbers of people sleeping rough on a given night. This year we will give nearly half a billion pounds to councils and charities to support homelessness and rough sleeping services and get people off the streets for good.”