Number of London street homeless rises to 14 year high

The number of people sleeping out on the streets in England has risen for the third year in a row, with the largest increase seen in London according to data released at the end of February.

Across England, 4,667 were estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in the autumn of last year.

Of those, 1,318 were counted on the streets of London — a 16 percent increase compared with the previous year, higher than the previous peak of 1,283 recorded in 2018, and making it the highest number counted since 2010.

In the City of Westminster, 388 people were recorded sleeping out in the open — a 40 percent increase on the previous year. A nine percent increase was observed in the London Borough of Camden where 132 people were counted sleeping on the streets.

The figures are a minimum number and likely to be a substantial underestimate due to the difficulty of counting people on a single night, but they give an indication of change in the street sleeping population over the years.

The two local authorities have the highest estimated number of people sleeping on the streets.

Local Authority	2023	2024	Change	% Change
Westminster	277	388	111	40
Camden	121	132	11	9
City of London	61	86	25	41
Somerset	57	80	23	40
Bristol, City of	67	77	10	15
Brighton and Hove	52	76	24	46
Leeds	49	69	20	41
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	64	63	-1	-2
Leicester	26	61	35	135
Waltham Forest	25	60	35	140

Table above: Local authorities with the highest estimated number of people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2024, compared to previous year.

Year	England	% change on previous year (England)	London	% change on previous year (London)	Rest of England	% change on previous year (Rest of England)
2010	1,768	–	415	–	1,353	–
2011	2,181	23	446	7	1,735	28
2012	2,309	6	557	25	1,752	1
2013	2,414	5	543	-3	1,871	7
2014	2,744	14	742	37	2,002	7
2015	3,569	30	940	27	2,629	31
2016	4,134	16	964	3	3,170	21
2017	4,751	15	1,137	18	3,614	14
2018	4,677	-2	1,283	13	3,394	-6
2019	4,266	-9	1,136	-11	3,130	-8
2020	2,688	-37	714	-37	1,974	-37
2021	2,443	-9	640	-10	1,803	-9
2022	3,069	26	858	34	2,211	23
2023	3,898	27	1,132	32	2,766	25
2024	4,667	20	1,318	16	3,349	21

Table above: Estimated number of people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn in England, London and Rest of England, 2010 to 2024.

Rough sleeping snapshot in England: autumn 2024.

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