Length of time in temporary accommodation
UK
Percentage (%), Days
No, due to different measures, different time series, different data collection methodologies and different legislation
Eligibility for temporary accommodation differs across the UK. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, temporary housing is largely provided for applicants who are in priority need; in Scotland, all applicants are entitled to temporary accommodation. Non-priority need households or households that have not been accepted for a housing duty may also be in temporary accommodation arranged by themselves, but they are unlikely to be captured within currently reported data.All countries report data for the length of time households spend in temporary accommodation, but the time frame and the cohort of applicants for which data are reported are different. It is therefore not possible to produce a UK-wide estimate for how long households are staying in temporary accommodation with currently available data. For more information on how each country reports length of time spent in temporary accommodation, please see source information below.
The data source used for these charts was the ONS UK homelessness comparability report: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/articles/ukhomelessness/2005to2018
Total households leaving temporary accommodation or no longer recorded as 'Duty owed, no accommodation secured'
Temporary accommodation live tables: January to March 2018
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
England
2004 Q1 - 2018 Q1
Quarterly
2004 Q1
Data within "Temporary accommodation live tables: January to March 2018"
Data source only provides total leaving figures and %s for different time periods.
Households no longer owed a main homelessness duty by a local housing authority under the 1996 Housing Act. The household may have accepted an offer of accommodation (or a nomination to an RSL tenancy) under Part 6 of the Act, accepted a Qualifying Offer or an offer of an assured tenancy other than under Part 6, refused a Part 6 offer, or otherwise voluntarily ceased to occupy temporary accommodation. From Q2 2013, includes cases where the reapplication duty under s195a was accepted (hence data are only included from Q2 2013 onwards in this spreadsheet).
"Duty owed, no accommodation secured" is defined as those households accepted as owed a main duty but able to remain in their existing accommodation for the immediate future.
Average total time spent in temporary accommodation (days)
Homelessness in Scotland
Scottish Government
Scotland
2017 - 2022
Annually
2017
Figures refer to homeless applications that closed in 2019/20 and took up temporary accommodation.
Total households accommodated temporarily at the end of the quarter
Households accommodated temporarily by accommodation type and household type (Post 2015-16)
StatsWales
Wales
2016 Q1 - 2020 Q1
Annually (only Q1 data are published each year)
2016 Q1
Disclosure control has been applied to the data. All figures less than 3 have been suppressed and appear as missing. All other figures are rounded independently to the nearest 3. As a result, there may be a difference between the sum of the constituent items and the total and between the sum of local authorities in Wales and the national figures
Total households in temporary accommodation
Northern Ireland Homelessness Bulletin January - June 2020
Northern Ireland Housing Executive
Northern Ireland
January 2019 - January 2021
Bi-annually
January 2019
Data refers to a snapshot of the number of households in temporary accommodation as of the listed month.