New government homelessness stats reveal 17th record rise in child homelessness

Today the government has released new statutory homelessness statistics which reveal:

176,130 children are homeless in temporary accommodation – up 6% (10,680) in a year, the highest figure since records began.

The number of children now homeless in temporary accommodation is equivalent to the total number of children living in Leeds.

134,210 households in England are homeless in temporary accommodation – up 5% in a year.

1 in 3 households (43,040) are in temporary accommodation outside their home area – a 5% rise in a year.

Sarah Elliott, Chief Executive of Shelter, said: "The fact the number of children homeless has risen for the seventeenth time in a row is hard to stomach. This terrible track record speaks to the desperate shortage of social homes and a rental system stacked against tenants for too long.

“Losing a privately rented home has been a major cause of homelessness for years, with dreaded no-fault evictions responsible for leaving thousands of families without a home. Add to this the painful lack of social housing in this country, and you are left with a generation of children robbed of a safe home and forced to grow up in dire temporary accommodation.

“The incoming Renters Rights Act marks a giant step forward, finally giving renters hard won protections from unfair evictions. But the only way to end homelessness for good, is for the government to rapidly increase the number of genuinely affordable social rent homes by helping councils to build at scale again.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Statutory homelessness in England

Statutory homelessness statistics relate to the quarter October – December 2025. They collate information on statutory homelessness applications, duties, and outcomes for local authorities in England, as well as households in temporary accommodation (TA). Unlike other data in this dataset, the TA figures are a snapshot at the end of the quarter, not a cumulative total of all placements across a quarter. The figures are available at: MHCLG, Statutory homelessness in England: October to December 2025, Table TA1.

134,210 households were recorded to be living in temporary accommodation in England at the end of the quarter October – December 2025. This figure has increased by 4.74% (6,390 households) since the end of December 2024.

176,130 children were recorded to be living in temporary accommodation in England at the end of the quarter October – December 2025. The number of children in temporary accommodation has increased by 6.07% (10,680 children) since December 2024 and is the highest number since records began (June 2004).

43,040 households were recorded as being placed in TA in another local authority district at the end of the quarter October – December 2025. This figure has increased by 4.8% (1,970 households) since the end of December 2024. This equates to 30.6% of all households in temporary accommodation.

Other

There are 176,239 children aged under 18 living in Leeds. This is available at: ONS, Estimates of the population for England and Wales mid-2024, Table MYE2.