The number of people sleeping rough on a typical night in England has risen by 15 per cent in a year, official figures show.
Last autumn 4,751 rough sleepers were counted, a figure that has more than doubled in eight years. Homelessness charities said that it represented a small proportion of the actual number. The data is an estimate based on counts by support workers, police, charities and church groups who reported to local authorities.
There is growing debate about homelessness. This week two Conservative councillors quit the party’s group on Windsor and Maidenhead council after its leader survived a vote of no confidence. Simon Dudley, the Tory leader, had written to the Thames Valley police and crime commissioner calling on his force to deal with “an epidemic of rough sleeping and vagrancy” in Windsor before the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19. Windsor and Maidenhead council reported 11 rough sleepers in the survey.
Last month MPs on the public accounts committee accused ministers of being ineffective in their response to rising homelessness, including families being forced into temporary hostels or guest houses after being evicted when private landlords put up their rent.
The government aims to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it by 2027.
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The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that the total had risen by 615 from the previous year. It represents the number of people seen or thought to be sleeping rough by local authorities on a typical night in October or November.
About 25 per cent of rough sleepers — 1,137 — were in London, a rise of 18 per cent on the previous year. The next biggest rises in England were in Brighton and Hove, Medway, Southend-on-Sea, Oxford, Tameside, Worthing, Salford and Eastbourne.
Women made up 14 per cent of the rough sleepers. Citizens from European Union countries comprised 16 per cent of the total.
St Mungo’s, a charity that collects data on rough sleepers in London, said that 8,108 people were seen last year. The charity Crisis found that at least 8,000 people were sleeping rough in England and 9,100 in Britain as a whole, with a further 9,000 homeless people sleeping in tents, cars, trains or buses.
Jon Sparkes, the Crisis chief executive, said: “It is truly a catastrophe that in a country as prosperous as this, more and more people are finding themselves forced to sleep in dangerous and freezing conditions.”
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The housing ministry said: “We are providing over £1 billion of funding, supporting rough sleepers with the most complex needs through a new housing-first approach and bringing in the most ambitious legislation in decades that will mean people get the support they need earlier.
“In addition a new cross-government task force supported by a panel of experts will drive forward a new strategy that will make life on the streets a thing of the past.”