2023-12-27 03:00:00
Time.news – Homelessness in rural areas of England has increased by 40% in five years and many are sleeping outdoors, in tents or makeshift shelters, a British rural charity said on Tuesday.
A cost-of-living crisis in the G7 nation and the world’s sixth-largest economy, fueled by ahigh inflationhas left many Britons struggling to make ends meet, due to rising bills for food, energy, rent and mortgages.
Inflation is falling from a 41-year high of 11.1% in October 2022 to 3.9% in November, but charities believe a number of factors, particularly cuts to welfare payments in the last decade and housing shortages have exacerbated food poverty and homelessness. The CPRE association, which campaigns for affordable housing in rural England, said rural homelessness had increased from 17,212 in 2018 to 24,143 in 2023, due to wage stagnation and rising housing costs in many areas.
“The sharp rise in homelessness in rural areas shows the real impact of record house prices, huge waiting lists for social rented housing and second home boom and short-term rentals”.
The charity said 12 local authorities across England – defined as predominantly rural – have levels of rough sleeping above the national average of 15 people per 100,000 population. The city of Boston, north-east of London, was the rural local authority hardest hit by the sleeping phenomenon in the open.
According to the report, in September 2023 – the latest month for which data is available – 48 people per 100,000 were sleeping rough in the city. Boston is followed by Bedford, north of London, with 38 people per 100,000, and North Devon, in southwest England, with 29 people.
“Unlike people living in urban areas, people sleeping rough in the countryside are often hidden, camping in fields or sheltering in agricultural buildings,” the association said.
They are also less likely to have access to support services.” This means that the analysis, which uses government data, almost certainly underestimate the extent of the crisis”.
The association said 300,000 people are waiting for a social housing in rural England, where the average house sells for around £420,000.
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