Austerity has pushed young homeless people to back of queue for help. The government must act

Last year Centrepoint estimated that more than 119,000 young people in England faced homelessness – a record high and a 6% increase on the previous year.

Figures from the most recent financial year will no doubt show that the problem is getting worse, and new research commissioned by Centrepoint shows that local authorities are buckling under the strain of meeting their basic legal obligations to assess and support vulnerable young people.

Austerity has stripped back councils in England, meaning that they are simply not equipped to deal with these huge and increasing numbers.

It is a hugely brave moment when a young person approaches their local council to ask for help, but we estimate more than 40,000 of those who reached out last year weren’t even assessed and our latest data is shining a light on why.

The Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) makes it a council’s legal duty to assess every person that presents to them, but it is becoming increasingly clear that they do not have the resources to carry out these duties. This then leads to councils having to make difficult decisions around who gets assessed and supported – and young people are often at the back of queue.

Despite significant investment from central government to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness more broadly over the last few years, it is evident that this is no longer enough. Demand for services and support is quickly outstripping supply and councils need more funding to deliver on their basic duties. But how much do they need?

Working with WPI Economics, we calculated how much additional funding councils across England would need to meet their obligations under the HRA. This involved creating a range of scenarios which accounted for a wide spectrum of needs and outcomes for young people: optimistic scenarios where cases are more easily prevented or relieved, pessimistic scenarios where young people are at a higher risk of homelessness, and a baseline scenario where all young people are assessed and their cases proceed in the same way as assessed cases.

From this, we found that councils across England are facing a £332m annual funding gap under the baseline scenario. One London Borough – Newham – would need as much as £32m to deliver on their duties. Others, including Liverpool, Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing, Cornwall and Bexley, would need in excess of £10m each.

However, these costs will be higher the more complex and difficult the cases become – in the most pessimistic scenario, where cases are much harder to relieve or prevent, councils could need up to £424m annually.

The largest expense comes from the main duty of the HRA and the cost of temporary accommodation (TA), which is becoming an increasingly difficult cost to bear for councils across the country. In fact, the latest government data has shown that £1.8bn was spent on TA across England in 2022-23.

Given the increasing levels of homelessness, you could be forgiven for thinking the government is throwing money at the problem, rather than working to properly resource councils to help prevent homelessness and to create affordable homes for individuals and families who need their homelessness relieved.

A key part of addressing the crisis is ensuring that councils have the means to carry out their basic legal duties. Beyond this, we also need greater investment to build truly affordable homes, a cross-departmental strategy that defines the government approach to ending homelessness, and inflation-proof spending commitments that protect the most vulnerable people in our society.

While £332m may sound like a significant amount of money to invest, it is a drop in the ocean in the context of current spending and when you think about how it could benefit society in the future. The sooner we identify young people facing homelessness and provide the right support, the sooner we can work towards ending youth homelessness for good.

Dr Tom Kerridge is policy and research manager at Centrepoint.

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