Good Data Won’t End Homelessness But It’s A Key Part Of The Solution

A long-awaited report by the body responsible for safeguarding the quality of official statistics has concluded that the way in which homelessness data is currently collected and reported by Government requires significant improvement. And this amidst growing concern that official statistics misrepresent the true scale of the homelessness problem in England. The report, released by the UK Statistics Authority, found that statutory homelessness data need a range of improvements to retain its status as ‘National Statistics’. The CLG’s prevention and relief and rough sleeping statistics were also looked at as part of the assessment and were found lacking. Above all, the UKSA says that the Government needs to be more transparent about what the three datasets collectively tell us about the state of homelessness in England. Read more on the Crisis blog.