Some hoped that homelessness was becoming a thing of the past. In 2022 to 2023, the then Conservative Government allocated ‘£315.8 million to local authorities through the Homelessness Prevention Grant’ aimed at supporting the local Councils ‘to deliver services to prevent and tackle homelessness’. At the time the UK Authorities claimed that this action ‘maintained the significant investment of £310 million which was provided through the Homelessness Prevention Grant in 2021.
On 18 December 2024 the new Labour Government announced that £1 billion of new funding would be made available for the next year (2025) to fight homelessness.
It looks like the funding put forward by the Conservative party did not have the desired effect and this level of funding may well be needed.
This is evidenced by a recent response which was received from Halton Borough Council to a Freedom of Information Request. The reply to the Request seems to have revealed that thenumbers of homeless people in the constituency of Halton in the North West of England are climbing rapidly. The Freedom of Information Request response was revealing because it uncovered a colossal 74% increase in the numbers of people registering as homeless in the Borough.
How was this large increase discovered?
The staggering rise in the number of homeless people in Halton became apparent after someone identifying themselves as P Davis submitted a Freedom of Information Request on 31 January 2025, wanting decision makers in the area to reveal first ‘the number of people that presented themselves as homeless, or at risk of homelessness, in each of the last five financial years’. Davis wanted the numbers for the relevant years broken down per year from 2020 to 2025.
Second, Davis asked for the information gathered in these years to be ‘shown by percentages in the following age groups:
- under 18,
- 18-24,
- 25-65 and
- over 65.
Davis also requested for the information to be divided into the respective towns such as Runcorn, Widnes, etc. On 2 March 2025 the Local Authority provided its response to the Freedom of Information Request submitted by Davis. The results did not make for happy reading for the Local Authority as the curtain was thrown back and exposed a concerning climb in the numbers of people in the North West of England Borough of Halton claiming to have been made homeless in 2024.
Climbing numbers
The response published by the Local Authority was concerning because it exposed a huge leap in terms of the numbers of people in the area who are now homeless. For example, it showed that in the years 2020/2021 there were 1,817 people in the area governed by Halton Borough Council affected by the plight of homelessness. However, this was small potatoes compared with the huge escalation in the year 2024/25 when the number had increased to 3,162 people now requiring help to combat homelessness. Now this may not seem like much to some people, but when you compare the figures it soon dawns on you that this is a terrifying rise of approximately 74%.
What causes the climbing homelessness numbers?
What is causing homelessness and why are the numbers climbing so rapidly? Looking into some of the causes of homelessness, many common denominators seem to be causing this huge increasing numbers of homeless people in the Borough of Halton, such as:
- issues with mental health,
- inflation
- reduced money available for social services
- poverty
- breakdown of a relationship
- reduced social support
- lack of housing that is affordable; and
- addiction
However, it is not an easy puzzle to solve as shown by the multitude of factors that play a role.
The national situation
Halton’s problem appears to be part of a wider trend. According to figures released by the UK Government in late April 2024 homelessness numbers in the final quarter of 2023 rose 16%. This appeared to demonstrate the magnitude of the United Kingdom’s homelessness emergency and is mainly attributed to:
- rapidly increasing levels of rent,
- rising inflation; and
- lower money available in the form of welfare benefits.
These also appear to have been a contributing factor to the demand for homelessness services provided by Halton Borough Council. The welfare reforms mean that Local Authorities in this situation are being forced to cope with increasing costs related to:
- temporary accommodation
- bed;
- breakfast; and
- related services.
On 25 February 2025 Peter Foster, Amy Borrett, and Jennifer Williams from the Financial Times observed that English councils’ spending in emergency housing surges’. Homelessness charity Crisis thought that ‘expenditure had jumped near 80% to £721 million’ and thought this ‘reflected the increasingly acute homelessness crisis’
Homelessness seems to be escalating
The climbing numbers shown by the response to this Freedom of Information Request appear to be evidence of a rapidly escalating homelessness situation that is taking a grip in the North West England Borough of Halton. The issue appears to have its roots in national and regional factors such as the (including but not limited to):
- escalating number of adolescents who do not have a decent roof over their heads;
- increasing housing costs
- hikes in the levels of rent being charged to tenants (dependent of course on their housing status);
- the burden of providing assistance to people who are external to the Local Authority; or
- the spiking rise in people claiming to have been made homeless over the last twelve months in the Borough of Halton.
The response to the Freedom of Information Request shows how pressing the need has become for action to be taken to stop the growing numbers of homeless people from rising any further and taking this figure down to more manageable levels.
These are real people, not just numbers
The point is that this increase of 74% is not just a number. There are people in the real world being affected by this rapid rise in homelessness. If Halton Borough Council is going to deal with it they need to tackle it by acting collectively with:
- Local Authorities
- Members of the community; and
- Other organisations in the area.
But will anything the council does manage to reduce the numbers of people claiming to be homeless in the North West of England Borough of Halton? Will the money invested in December 2024 make any difference at all? And with the escalating trade war between the United States and China and consumer prices going up because of it, will we be back here this time next year? The reader can only hope that the Trade Deal signed on 12 May 2025 between China and the United States will be enough to de-escalate tensions.
