Housing, Planning and Local Services
Our Housing, Planning and Local Services domain oversees statistics on topics including housing, household estimates and projections, homelessness, housing requirements and commercial, industrial, retail and residential planning. It also covers information on local services such as fire and rescue services.
During 2021/22, we will use our regulatory tools to drive improvements for specific outputs; push for ambitious developments to close data gaps and ensure data quality, including in order to build trust in the context of COVID-19; bring sources together to enhance statistical insights; and share examples of best practice between statistics producers. Our planned regulatory work will focus on homelessness and rough sleeping; private sector rent levels; housing conditions, local government finances, planning and land use statistics.
We will also scope the value of census data for answering key questions in the housing and planning area, relevant implications from the work of the Geospatial Commission, and continue to promote the voluntary application of the Code to key producers outside of the official statistics community.
Contact our regulators for this domain Oliver Fox-Tatum , Gemma Keane or Michelle Alderson, for more information.
Current issues in this domain
Statistics on homelessness and rough sleeping have developed in different ways in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Each country in the UK has its own approach to homelessness policy, with different criteria for state support and different approaches for measuring homelessness and rough sleeping.
We have recently seen improvements and innovation in the way that statistics producers measure and report on homelessness and rough sleeping. This has led to a better understanding of the extent and characteristics of the homeless and rough sleeping populations. However, there is still more to work needed to provide further clarity and insight in this space.
Government statistics producers across all four UK countries have committed to a joint work plan to enhance the available UK homelessness and rough sleeping statistics. Statisticians have also committed to further engagement with users to ensure that any new statistics produced meet their needs.
We encourage producers to work towards developing a richer, better integrated and more robust statistical picture of homelessness and rough sleeping in the UK which more fully conveys the dynamics and complexity of UK homelessness and rough sleeping. In doing this, it is important that statistics and data better represent the lived experiences of homeless people, as well as the wider public’s experience of the scale and nature of UK homelessness and rough sleeping.
Planned Work
| Project | Geography | Project Type | Timescale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland and Household Projections for Scotland (NRS) | Scotland | Compliance Check | April - September 2021 |
| Northern Ireland Household Projections (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) | Northern Ireland | Compliance Check | April - September 2021 |
| Welsh Household Estimates and Welsh Household Projections (Welsh Government) | Wales | Compliance Check | April - September 2021 |
| Local Authority Revenue Expenditure and Financing Budget statistics (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) | England | Compliance Check | April - September 2021 |
| Local Authority Green Belt Statistics for England (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) | England | Compliance Check | April - September 2021 |
| Statutory Homelessness statistics in England (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) | England | Assessment | April - September 2021 |
Published Correspondence – Housing, Planning and Local Services domain
Correspondence
Mark Pont to Roger Halliday: Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey Statistics
29 July 2021
Mark Pont, Office for Statistics Regulation to Professor Roger Halliday, Scottish Government
Mark Pont to Stephanie Howarth: Welsh Government Fire Statistics
29 June 2021
Mark Pont, Office for Statistics Regulation to Stephanie Howarth, Welsh Government
Ed Humpherson response to Sandra Tudor: National Statistics designation for local authority revenue expenditure and financing, budget statistics, England
24 June 2021
Ed Humpherson, Office for Statistics Regulation to Sandra Tudor, MHCLG
Sandra Tudor to Ed Humpherson: Request for reinstatement of National Statistics designation for Local authority revenue expenditure and financing, England
24 June 2021
Sandra Tudor, MHCLG to Ed Humpherson, Office for Statistics Regulation
Mark Pont to Daniel Shaw: Home Office Fire Incident Statistics and detailed fire and non-fire analyses
21 May 2021
Mark Pont, Office for Statistics Regulation to Daniel Shaw, Home Office
Publications
Assessment Report: Northern Ireland Planning Statistics
7 May 2020
Published in: Assessment Report
Two-year update: Public Value of Statistics on Housing and Planning in the UK
27 February 2020
Published in: Systemic/Monitoring Reviews
Statistics from the Welsh Housing Conditions Survey
24 October 2018
Published in: Assessment Report
News & Events
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