Nottingham City Council is facing sustained and complex pressures around homelessness and rough sleeping, driven by deep-rooted deprivation, housing shortages and rising demand for emergency support, according to a detailed report to be presented to councillors next week.
A wide-ranging update will be presented to the Homes, Economy and Infrastructure Scrutiny Committee on 19 January, setting out the scale of homelessness in the city, how services have been reshaped over the past two years, and why Nottingham continues to record some of the highest rates of homelessness and rough sleeping among England’s core cities.
The council’s statutory duties are set by the Housing Act 1996 and later amendments, requiring it to prevent and relieve homelessness where possible, and to provide emergency and temporary accommodation to eligible households in priority need. Where households meet strict legal tests – including being unintentionally homeless – the authority must secure permanent housing and provide temporary accommodation in the meantime.
Homelessness remains a national issue, but the report makes clear that Nottingham faces particular structural challenges. The city has a low-wage economy, long-standing deprivation in several neighbourhoods, and a significant gap between private rents and Local Housing Allowance levels. These pressures are compounded by a chronic shortage of social housing and a private rented market increasingly dominated by student accommodation, particularly for one-bedroom and shared homes.
Around 130 households approach the council every week for homelessness assistance, with nearly one in five being families. Demand rose steadily up to 2024 and has since stabilised, but levels remain high. In the first quarter of 2025/26 alone, more than 800 homelessness assessments were completed, equating to 6.2 per 1,000 households – higher than most comparable authorities.
Families continue to make up a substantial proportion of those needing help. So far this financial year, 471 families have been approved for temporary accommodation, slightly fewer than last year. The most common trigger is being asked to leave accommodation provided by friends or family, followed by evictions from the private rented sector, people leaving asylum accommodation after a Home Office decision, and households fleeing domestic abuse.
The profile of affected families shows that most lead applicants are aged between 25 and 44, with women making up three-quarters of family homelessness cases. Single people present a different and increasingly acute challenge. The number of single households requiring emergency accommodation has risen sharply, increasing by almost a third in the past year, from 339 cases in 2024 to 446 in 2025.
Among single homeless people, mental and physical health needs are widespread, and around one in ten has an offending history. Many have experienced severe and multiple disadvantage, often linked to prison release, hospital discharge, domestic abuse or the breakdown of supported accommodation placements.
The report also highlights stark inequalities. People from Black or Mixed ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately affected by homelessness when compared with Nottingham’s wider population, while non-UK nationals are also over-represented, particularly among homeless families.
Rough sleeping remains a visible and persistent issue. Monthly street counts typically record between 40 and 60 people sleeping rough on any given night, with 149 individuals identified at some point during November 2025 alone. While many core cities record higher absolute numbers, Nottingham has the highest rate when population size is taken into account. Longer-term rough sleeping is rising, with a significant cohort disengaging from services or declining accommodation offers.
Councillors are told that Nottingham’s central location, tight local authority boundaries, proximity to major prisons and hospitals, and long-standing practice of going beyond statutory minimums all contribute to higher recorded numbers. Daily outreach, regular counts and a public reporting hotline also mean rough sleeping is more comprehensively identified than in many areas.
In response to these pressures, the council has undertaken a major restructuring of its Housing Solutions service since autumn 2023. Staffing levels have been increased, specialist roles introduced, and caseloads reduced from unsustainable levels that previously exceeded four times recommended limits. The service budget has doubled to £2 million, supported by £3.58 million in homelessness grant funding, excluding rough sleeping grants.
Early evidence suggests the changes are improving outcomes. Prevention performance has strengthened significantly, with half of all prevention cases now ending with households securing accommodation for at least six months, compared with just under 40 per cent before the restructure. The council is also outperforming national averages in securing private rented accommodation through prevention work.
Targeted initiatives such as early landlord engagement, specialist domestic abuse support, expanded sanctuary schemes and stronger links with prisons, hospitals and children’s services are central to the strategy. The council has also invested heavily in cross-departmental working to support people with complex needs, including care leavers and adults with mental health or hoarding issues.
Financially, homelessness remains one of the council’s most expensive statutory responsibilities, largely due to the cost of temporary accommodation. Spending on hotels and nightly-paid emergency accommodation peaked at £6.5 million in 2024/25 but is forecast to fall to £4.3 million this year, following bulk-booking arrangements and efforts to expand cheaper commissioned and council-owned provision.
More than £8.6 million in external grant funding has been secured this year to support homelessness and rough sleeping services, with further recommissioning planned from 2027 following a comprehensive review.
The report concludes that while demand remains exceptionally high, the council now has a more resilient and preventative system in place, aimed at stabilising costs, reducing rough sleeping, and improving outcomes for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.
