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Official sources · Questions

Housing and homelessness statistics: MHCLG, MoJ and devolved sources

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the UK government department responsible for housing and homelessness policy in England, and it publishes the official statistics on homelessness, rough sleeping, social housing, dwelling stock and housing tenure. The Ministry of Justice publishes court possession and repossession figures for England and Wales, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish their own homelessness and housing statistics. Fact-checkers use these sources to test claims about homelessness, waiting lists, evictions, empty homes and the size of the rented sectors.

Covers: England · Release calendar

What it publishes

Key datasets

APIs and downloads

When it publishes

MHCLG releases statistics at 9:30am on dates announced in advance on GOV.UK's research and statistics calendar. Statutory homelessness figures are quarterly, about four to five months after the quarter ends; the rough sleeping snapshot for each autumn is published early the following year; social housing lettings, local authority housing statistics, dwelling stock, social housing sales and the English Housing Survey are annual, and council taxbase figures come out each autumn. The Ministry of Justice publishes possession statistics quarterly, around six weeks after each quarter. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each publish their own calendars.

How to use it to check a claim

  1. Identify the measure: households in temporary accommodation, people sleeping rough on one night, and households owed a homelessness duty during a quarter are different counts and should not be added together.
  2. For temporary accommodation, use the snapshot date (end of quarter) and say whether the figure is households, households with children or children.
  3. For rough sleeping, quote the single-night snapshot with its year, and note that management information covering a period will give larger totals.
  4. For waiting lists, use Live Table 600 for the council and year, and check the notes for councils that changed their allocation rules or reviewed their registers.
  5. For evictions, separate claims, orders, warrants and bailiff repossessions, and separate private landlord, social landlord, accelerated and mortgage cases in the MoJ tables.
  6. For tenure shares, use the English Housing Survey for households and the dwelling stock tables for homes, and say which you used.
  7. For UK-wide claims, combine figures from all four nations only after checking that their definitions match; homelessness law differs between them.

Common mistakes

What is statutory homelessness?

Statutory homelessness covers households that a council in England has assessed under homelessness law as homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days. Councils then owe a duty to prevent or relieve homelessness, and some households are later owed the main housing duty. MHCLG publishes these assessments and outcomes every quarter, alongside the number of households in temporary accommodation.

What is CORE in social housing?

CORE (COntinuous REcording) is the system councils and housing associations in England use to record each new social housing letting and sale. It collects details such as rent, tenancy type, household make-up and previous housing circumstances, and MHCLG publishes the results annually as the social housing lettings statistics with a sub-national dashboard.

Where are homelessness figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

The Scottish Government publishes Homelessness in Scotland twice a year, the Welsh Government publishes homelessness statistics and a monthly release on temporary accommodation and rough sleeping, and the Department for Communities publishes the Northern Ireland Homelessness Bulletin twice a year. Each follows its own law and definitions, so check them before comparing with England.

Who publishes eviction statistics?

The Ministry of Justice publishes mortgage and landlord possession statistics for England and Wales every quarter. They count possession claims, orders, warrants and repossessions carried out by county court bailiffs, split by mortgage lenders, private landlords, social landlords and accelerated procedure claims, with regional and court-level data.

Questions answered using this source

Links checked 2026-10-13. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.