‘Policy choices’ blamed for homeless numbers

The city's homelessness problem has been described as an "acute crisis"

Policy choices over the last decade have led to record levels of rough sleeping in Nottingham, a leading charity claims.

A monthly headcount undertaken in June 2024 found 51 people were sleeping rough in the city, including 42 men and nine women, the highest June figure for a decade.

The boss of Framework, a homelessness support charity, blamed a lack of social housing and lack of access to mental health support and drug and alcohol addiction services.

The government said it would "take the action needed to tackle this issue" in order to "end homelessness for good".

During a Nottingham City Council housing scrutiny committee meeting on July 15, the issue was described as an “acute crisis”.

“Rough sleeping is the very visual side of homelessness... and we have people dealing with that,” said Mark Lowe, the council’s head of housing.

“For us the other aspect, and the aspect that costs most of our budget, relates to families and vulnerable people who are being evicted or are, for other reasons, losing their home.”

The high cost of renting a home in Nottingham is one of the issues, the council says

Nottingham City Council said it is the less visible side of homelessness that is the most significant issue – and one that costs it the most money.

Over the last year the use of emergency accommodation for homeless families and households more than doubled.

As of June, the council had been accommodating 235 households in emergency housing, such as hotels and bed and breakfasts, compared to 115 a year ago.

The total number of people in any form of temporary accommodation in March this year was 776, up from 599 people.

Features of the national and Nottingham housing market have worsened the crisis, Mr Lowe said.

These features include high rents in the private sector which are well above Local Housing Allowance (LHA) levels.

“It’s very hard for people on benefits to get enough money to pay for a private rented place to live,” Mr Lowe added.

The number of new homes built has also not been able to match the significant numbers lost through the Right-to-Buy scheme, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Between 2019 and 2023, 988 homes were purchased through Right-to-Buy.

Over the same period, the council only managed to build or buy 374 affordable homes, and its registered providers only completed a further 126 homes.

'Making headway'

Jay Hayes, executive member for housing, said the costs of housing people in temporary accommodation was beginning to come down through better working with providers.

“So far this year we’ve been able to help 150 people into some form of accommodation.

“We are making headway there but there are still challenges.”

Andrew Redfern, chief executive of Framework, said the record numbers could be attributed to policy decisions taken over the last decade, including reduced social housing, restrictions on Local Housing Allowance, and cuts to public health services.

“Homelessness is a policy choice, and the choices made over recent years have made it much worse.

“It follows that different ones are needed now.

“Framework has sought to highlight all of these causes in the course of the recent general election campaign.

“We will continue to do so now that a new government has been elected."

Under the former Conservative government, Nottingham was awarded £20m to cover the period between 2021 and 2025, the highest amount of financial support outside London.

The new Labour government says it is looking to abolish no fault evictions to bring down the number of people losing their homes.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Rough sleepers are an all-too-common sight in our towns and cities, including Nottingham.

“As set out in the manifesto, we will take the action needed to tackle this issue and will develop a cross-government strategy so we can work with mayors and councils to end homelessness for good.”

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