The effectiveness of government in tackling homelessness

This report by the National Audit Office (NAO) assesses value for money in terms of whether DLUHC (now MHCLG) is working with government departments and local authorities in a way that maximises the government’s ability to tackle homelessness, is delivering appropriate system leadership, and supports local authorities well. 

The NAO report is in 3 parts:

• Part One sets out the main trends and patterns in homelessness 
• Part Two examines how well DLUHC is executing its policy responsibility for tackling homelessness and leading on implementing it across government 
• Part Three assesses whether DLUHC is supporting local authorities to deliver their statutory duties efficiently and effectively 

The report uncovers that Homelessness has worsened with numbers at record levels, meaning that more people are finding themselves either with no stable place to live or in variable quality temporary accommodation provided by their local authority.  And the cost of temporary accommodation alone was over £1.6 billion in 2022/23 creating unsustainable financial pressure for some local authorities.

The NAO acknowledges that While DLUHC has developed much better homelessness data and stronger links with local authorities, the government still has no strategy or public targets for reducing statutory homelessness, and DLUHC is falling behind on key programmes to improve housing supply. It reports that funding remains fragmented and generally short-term, inhibiting homelessness prevention work and limiting investment in good-quality temporary accommodation or other forms of housing.  

It concludes that until these factors are addressed across government, DLUHC will not be able to demonstrate that it is delivering optimal value for money from its efforts to tackle homelessness.