Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what processes are in place for counting and identifying instances of rural homelessness.

The Government understands rural homelessness presents unique challenges which can differ from urban areas.

We support local areas to put in place robust measures to identify people sleeping rough. This includes collecting monthly management information, alongside the official annual rough sleeping snapshot statistics, which support local authorities to understand better how people experience rough sleeping in their areas so they can design tailored local services.

Homeless Link have been funded by DLUHC since 2010 to provide guidance to local authorities who conduct the snapshot and independently verify all local authorities’ snapshots. This includes advice about how areas should take different approaches depending on the characteristics of their area.