
Breaking the Cycle: England's Priority Need system
We support people every day who are either experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness. While some of those people may be engaged with their local authority and going through the process of getting official support, many are not.
For a local authority in England to have to provide you with accommodation, you have to be in one of several priority need groups. This doesn't currently include people forced to sleep on the streets.
Meanwhile, the number of people asking for emergency or temporary accommodation and who have been turned away on the basis of not being in priority need has risen drastically over the last few years. This is likely to be only part of the picture, with statistics always missing those experiencing ‘hidden homelessness’ or those choosing not to engage with their local authority.
The reality of not being in priority need can be extremely traumatic. To the individual, it can mean having to sleep rough and feeling locked out of support. To governments, it can become a barrier to delivering an end to rough sleeping. The number of people being rejected from support on this basis is rising, with someone turned away every 16 minutes.
Our new report examines the priority need system and how it can be improved while also taking learnings on how to introduce policy changes while avoiding some of the challenges experienced by the devolved nations.
Key Recommendations
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In the short term:
A change to homelessness legislation in England, so that rough sleepers are added to the priority need list for emergency and longer-term housing.
This would involve utilising secondary legislation to amend Section 189 of the Housing Act 1996.
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Over the next decade:
A sustained investment and increase in housing stock, especially social housing, to meet the need of the growing numbers of people experiencing homelessness.
This increase must be immediate and continue over the decade to prepare for the eventual abolition of priority need.
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In the long term:
For the priority need list to be abolished. We are asking for all political parties to commit to abolishing the priority need list in the next decade.
The recommendations we are proposing mirror the approach taken by the Welsh Government and also aim to reach the end goal of Scotland’s (almost) universal system.
Scotland’s legislation around homelessness has long been considered ‘world-leading’, and while there are challenges and the abolition of priority need cannot be considered a silver bullet, we believe it is an aspirational and yet achievable aim.
Depending on other changes to issues like intentionality, this step would put England on the path to delivering a universal right to housing. This is something The Salvation Army believes is fundamental to delivering a just and compassionate society.

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