New figures reveal scale of homelessness in England

With the latest Government figures showing 330,410 households in England are homeless or on the brink, The Salvation Army is urging the Government to unfreeze housing benefit without delay before the crisis deepens.

The Annual Statutory Homelessness figures for 2024 to 2025 show that:

• 330,410 households in England, including 107,970 with children, had to turn to their local authority for help between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 because they had nowhere to live or were at risk of losing their home. This is an 0.9% increase on this time last year.
• The number of households in England during this period who were threatened with homelessness because they can’t afford their rent also rose by 1.5% compared to the previous year.

Director of The Salvation Army’s Homeless Services, Nick Redmore said: “The best way to tackle homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Yet the Government’s failure to lift the freeze on housing benefit in yesterday’s Autumn Budget has left hundreds of thousands of people unable to afford a roof over their head.

“What was once a safety net to protect people from falling into homelessness, doesn’t even cover the cheapest rents in many parts of England. Rents have soared, meaning the value of housing benefit has plummeted, now covering a mere three per cent of private rental properties.

“We recognise that the Government must make difficult economic decisions, but this must not come at the expense of people already struggling to survive. If the freeze on housing benefit continues it is certain to seriously undermine the Government’s long-awaited strategy to tackle the homelessness crisis.”

The Salvation Army is also calling for the Government to: 

• Invest in more housing stock, especially social housing, to meet the needs of the growing numbers of people experiencing homelessness.
• Ensure benefits like Universal Credit cover the cost of essentials.
• Remove the five-week wait for Universal Credit.