Tag: statistics

The full extent of the homelessness crisis
The full extent of the homelessness crisis
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New homelessness figures

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) recently released new figures on homelessness, marking the last release of the current version of the homelessness statistics. With the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act in April 2018, the information local authorities collect about households, and the way this information is presented, will change.

The current statistics are the most important source of information about households and families found to be homeless. They tell us what kinds … Read more

Proving our worth
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68,500 people. That’s huge.

If you’ve been following the World Athletics Championships, imagine every seat in the Olympic stadium taken up by someone who has a story to tell about how Shelter changed their lives in 2016/17.

That’s what we did, and do: we change lives, and now we can prove it.   

We’re not satisfied with feeling it in our bones, we want hard facts and figures to prove our impact, and learn from them.

Our Impact

Our first ever … Read more

What's really happened to rents in Scotland?
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Last week, Estate Agent LSL Property Services used the release of their Buy-to-Let index to claim that the ban on letting fees in Scotland has caused a ‘rent hike’. This didn’t sound quite right to us at Shelter, so we decided to go away and take a closer look.

Tell me more.

When we looked more closely at LSL’s index- we found that their own figures did not stack up against this claim of a ‘rent hike’.

LSL have reported… Read more
When is a region not a Region?
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As part of an ongoing effort to remove the regional government framework, Eric Pickles has announced that the Department for Communities and Local Government will no longer be publishing regional level statistics.

The arguments for and against this course of action are well-rehearsed and I do not intend to repeat them here (although you can read Shelter’s response to the consultation on this subject).

However this decision does raise a few issues.

The Department will include statistics for Local Enterprise … Read more

Why does housing matter to our well-being?
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When David Cameron announced last year there was to be a national measure of well-being the first thing that sprang to my mind was: ‘Surely your home must play an integral part in your overall happiness?’ Not a surprising comment from someone working at a housing charity campaigning for housing to be included in the measure, I hear you say. But the evidence stacks up too.

Last year Shelter commissioned the new economics foundation to carry out an exploratory study … Read more

We must spend less on housing
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The news has been worryingly free of house price stories of late, forcing some papers to fill pages with minor distractions like the Olympics, Leveson and the great summer weather.

Thankfully the IMF has come to the rescue of editors everywhere, with its annual report on the UK economy suggesting that house prices still need to fall by 10-15% now-ish – and by up to 30% to get back to trend.

Inevitably, the response from some quarters will be for … Read more

Top tips for spotting stats porkies
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On the Today programme yesterday morning, Housing Minister Grant Shapps was questioned about his claim that there has been a ‘dramatic increase in affordable homes’. Shelter pointed out that in fact the number of new affordable homes being started has fallen by 68% since the previous year – from around 50,000 to around 16,000.*

So how do you know who’s right and who’s wrong when it comes to stats? As the debate about the number of new affordable homes being … Read more

When you're told your rent increase is not a rent increase
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People can be deeply distrustful of statistics, especially when they are out of kilter with their own experiences and perceptions. It’s no surprise, then, that blogs such as FactCheck and FullFact are increasingly vital parts of the political debate.

When it’s on your own patch, a questionable stat grabs you right away. In my case it was when the Prime Minister stated at PMQs that private rents are going down. There was a collective ‘huh?’ in the office – … Read more

Homelessness rise - shocking or predictable?
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Yesterday’s homelessness statistics have confirmed what Shelter’s advisers have reported – more and more people are approaching their council for assistance because they can’t find anywhere affordable to live. Nationwide, the number of households accepted as entitled to assistance increased by 18 per cent last quarter compared to the same time the previous year. London has seen the sharpest increase in homelessness: a 36 per cent rise. But as this handy Guardian map shows it isn’t the only homelessness … Read more

London: the first to wake up to private renting?
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The growth of the private rented sector and the changing demographics of people who rent from a private landlord are widely considered to be the most significant changes in the housing market in recent decades.

Almost every time I look at the national picture through the government’s English Housing Survey I find another angle that sheds further light on the growth of the sector. Most recently I realised that there were 400,000 additional households with children in the private in … Read more