housing and living standards · the national record
Homelessness and temporary accommodation in England
On 31 December 2025, 134,210 households were living in temporary accommodation arranged by English councils, including 176,130 children. The total is 5.0 per cent higher than a year earlier and within a fraction of the record set the previous quarter; the small fall from that record is the first quarterly fall since 2022. Every figure is MHCLG's own, from the October to December 2025 statutory homelessness release.
How to read this
Statutory homelessness is what councils are legally obliged to record: households that approach their council and are owed a duty under the Homelessness Reduction Act. Temporary accommodation figures are a stock, counted on the last day of the quarter; duty figures are a flow during the quarter and are seasonal, so MHCLG compares them to the same quarter a year earlier and this page does the same. None of these figures count people sleeping rough: MHCLG's own guidance says these statistics are not suitable for that, and the separate annual rough sleeping snapshot is a different measure.
Computed from MHCLG's statutory homelessness England time series and detailed local authority tables for October to December 2025, published 30 April 2026. Every headline figure is asserted at build time against MHCLG's own statistical release; the build fails on any mismatch.
the stock
134,210 households in temporary accommodation
85,800 of those households, 63.9 per cent, include dependent children: 176,130 children were living in temporary accommodation on 31 December 2025. The other 48,410 households are adult only. The total fell 0.4 per cent from the record 134,700 of the previous quarter, the first quarterly fall since 2022, but remains 5.0 per cent up on a year earlier.
how it grew
Households in temporary accommodation since 1998
The series has a shape: a peak above 100,000 in the mid 2000s, a long fall to 48,010 at the end of 2010, then fifteen years of nearly uninterrupted growth. On the eve of the pandemic there were 88,310 households in temporary accommodation; there are now 134,210, a rise of 52 per cent since December 2019.
Households in temporary accommodation on 31 December each year, England. The low point was 48,010 at the end of 2010; the pre pandemic figure was 88,310. Source: MHCLG statutory homelessness England time series, Table TA1.
where they are
More than a third are in nightly paid rooms
50,410 households, 37.6 per cent of the total, were in nightly paid, privately managed accommodation, the most expensive and least stable category. 12,550 were in bed and breakfasts, down 23.4 per cent on the year, and the number of families in B and B beyond the six week legal limit has fallen 63.2 per cent to 1,190, falling every quarter since June 2024. 43,040 households were placed outside their own local authority area, up 4.8 per cent on the year; 35,410 of them were placed by London boroughs.
37.6 per cent of all households in TA
down 23.4 per cent on the year
down 63.2 per cent; falling since June 2024
35,410 of these placed by London boroughs
Selected categories on 31 December 2025; categories overlap and do not sum to the total. Source: MHCLG statutory homelessness release and Table TA1.
the quarter's flow
84,250 households asked for help in one quarter
During October to December 2025, 84,250 households had an initial assessment and 76,270 were owed a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness: 33,630 threatened with homelessness (4,960 of them because of a Section 21 no fault eviction notice, down 15.8 per cent on the year) and 42,640 already homeless. MHCLG reports that 49.1 per cent of duties ending in the quarter ended with homelessness prevented or relieved.
the postcode dimension
A London crisis first, but not only
Temporary accommodation per 1,000 households: 21.1 in London against 2.8 in the rest of England. London holds 75,600 of the 134,210 households, 56 per cent of the national total. The highest rates outside the capital cluster in places with high rents and constrained stock.
Highest rate per 1,000 households
7,412 households
4,732 households
3,682 households
4,425 households
4,163 households
4,176 households
1,479 households
2,874 households
1,814 households
3,090 households
7 councils have no published figures this quarter: Brent, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Ealing, Epping Forest, Leicester, Thanet. Their contribution is included in the England and regional totals but cannot be ranked here.
Households in temporary accommodation per 1,000 households by local authority, 31 December 2025, highest ten shown. Source: MHCLG detailed local authority tables, Table TA1.
honest questions
What this page can and cannot tell you
- 1.
Is this all homelessness?
No. This is statutory homelessness: households that approached a council and were owed a legal duty. People sleeping rough, sofa surfing, in squats or who never applied are not here, and MHCLG's own guidance says these statistics are not suitable for counting them. The annual rough sleeping snapshot is a separate measure on a separate page of the government's site.
- 2.
Is the crisis easing?
One quarter is not a trend. The 0.4 per cent fall from September 2025 is the first quarterly fall since 2022 and MHCLG itself calls the shift small; the total is still 5.0 per cent up on the year, and the number of children in temporary accommodation rose again to a new high. The clearest genuine improvement is families in B and B beyond the six week limit, down 63.2 per cent in a year.
- 3.
Can I compare this with Scotland and Wales?
Not directly. Each nation has its own legal framework and definitions, and MHCLG lists cross UK comparison as an unsuitable use. Scottish and Welsh homelessness statistics exist at local authority level and are on this site's roadmap as separate pages.
- 4.
How far back does the series go?
The temporary accommodation table runs from 1998, but the duty statistics start in April 2018, when the Homelessness Reduction Act and the H-CLIC data collection replaced the old P1E returns. MHCLG says duty figures are not comparable across that break, so this page never compares them across it.
Sources & method
Data provenance
- MHCLG, Statutory homelessness in England: October to December 2025 (England time series, detailed local authority tables and statistical release), published 30 April 2026 ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
Caveats & data notes
- Temporary accommodation figures are a stock at quarter end (31 December 2025); duty figures are a flow during the quarter and are seasonal, so all flow comparisons here are to the same quarter a year earlier, following MHCLG's own practice.
- Data are provisional when first published and revised the following quarter and at year end; figures on this page are the 30 April 2026 publication and may be revised.
- Duty statistics begin in April 2018 under the Homelessness Reduction Act; MHCLG states they are not comparable with the pre 2018 P1E collection. The temporary accommodation series is MHCLG's own continuous table from 1998, shown with that break in mind.
- England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland operate different legal frameworks and publish separate statistics that MHCLG says should not be compared with these.
- Rough sleeping is not measured here. MHCLG's own suitability guidance says these statistics cannot count people sleeping rough, sofa surfing or households that never applied for help.
- Seven councils (Brent, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Ealing, Epping Forest, Leicester and Thanet) have no published individual figures this quarter, shown as '..' in MHCLG's tables; the England and regional totals still include their contribution, and the nine regional totals sum to the England figure exactly. The league table necessarily excludes these seven. Rates per 1,000 households use MHCLG's own published household denominators.
Every figure on this page traces to its official source. Share it as it stands.
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