The annual counts and estimates data for rough sleeping in England in 2022  has been published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

The data provides a snapshot of the number of people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in Autumn and is used to track national and local trends. This year’s count was conducted in November 2022.

It found that 3,069 people were estimated to be sleeping rough in England on any given night – an increase of 26% compared to 2021. It is the biggest year on year percentage increase in rough sleeping since 2015.The data shows that rough sleeping has increased by almost 75% when compared to 2010, which was when this method of tracking data was first used. These latest figures show an end to a four-year reduction in people sleeping rough.

Responding to the statistics, Rick Henderson, CEO at Homeless Link, the national membership charity for frontline homelessness organisations, said: “Everyone deserves a safe place to live and the support they need to keep it. This shocking rise in the number of people sleeping rough represents a massive, collective failure. People are being let down by systems that should protect them, forced onto the streets at the expense of their physical and mental health.

“The 26% rise is evidence of how the cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated long standing drivers of homelessness, such as a shortage of affordable housing, an often punitive welfare system and increasingly stretched health services. At the same time continuing financial pressures mean hundreds of homelessness services across the country are on the brink of closing down*, risking leaving people experiencing homelessness with nowhere to turn.

“The Government can and must take urgent action to keep homelessness services open. The upcoming Budget is an opportunity to recognise the significant increase to the cost of delivering homelessness services and to increase funding in line with inflation.

“And, as rents rise and figures show that more households are being made homeless from the Private Rental Sector, unfreezing the Local Housing Allowance so that housing benefit fairly represents current housing costs, as well as delivering the long promised rental reforms would go a long way to preventing even more people from becoming homeless over the next year.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “The increase in people sleeping rough on London’s streets is extremely alarming and further evidence of the devastating fallout from the cost-of-living crisis.

“I’m doing everything in my power to help those who find themselves out on the streets. Since I became Mayor, City Hall services have helped a record 13,500 people, with the vast majority not seen sleeping rough again, and I’ve quadrupled our rough sleeping budget. We are also building more council homes in London than at any time since the 1970s.

“Today’s figures demonstrate that the Government must urgently increase support where it’s needed most if we’re to end rough sleeping in London and nationwide. It is high time Ministers got a grip on the escalating food, energy and housing crises and restored the social security safety net which helps stop people becoming trapped in a cycle of homelessness. To do this, Ministers must first fulfil their manifesto pledge to end no fault eviction for private renters and invest in new council and genuinely affordable homes to help prevent more Londoners from becoming homeless in the first place.”