Elected Member Briefing Note 2026, No. 21
About this Briefing Note
Report by: Elaine Ritchie, Strategic Lead - Housing and Communities
EMBN Number: 021-26
Subject: Mid-year homelessness performance, April to September 2025
Details
Purpose
This briefing note is to inform you about the mid-year homelessness statistics for Scotland published this week, and about Perth and Kinross Council's updated homelessness performance.
The details are based on the Scottish Government's mid-year 'Homelessness in Scotland' publication and dataset, covering the period from April to September 2025. Where comparisons are provided, these will be set alongside the same period in 2024 or provide a snapshot comparison of the position on 30 September of each year. Typically we will, for internal reporting purposes, compare the year to date (YTD) position with the equivalent period in the previous year.
Briefing Information
Perth and Kinross Council has been repeatedly recognised nationally as a leading local authority for its work to prevent and tackle homelessness and statistics across key performance indicators show we continue to perform well.
However, these latest figures show that homelessness is a growing challenge for all local authorities due to issues such as the high cost of living, and pressures on the housing system nationally in terms of availability, accessibility and affordability.
We would also draw your attention to Elected Member Briefing Note 159-25 in relation to where there may be some apparent disparities between this latest mid-year update and the information previously provided.
National picture
The national trend is for a reduction in homelessness presentations. In the six months to September 2025, presentations reduced by 2%, with a 3% reduction in the 12 months to September 2025.
Perth and Kinross Council is largely consistent with the national picture with a six-month reduction of 4% and a 12-month reduction of 2%.
Some of the data in the mid-year publication is only available at national level, but it provides interesting context and is generally consistent with what we experience in Perth and Kinross.
The chart below provides a breakdown of homelessness presentations received over the six months from April to September 2025 by household type. The profile of presentations in Perth and Kinross is broadly in line with the national picture. 75% of presentations are from single person households.
Temporary accommodation
Whilst the trend with numbers of households presenting as homeless is downwards, the number of households in temporary accommodation (TA) continues to rise.
Nationally, there were 9% more households (+1,458 households) in TA on 30 September 2025 compared to the same date in 2024.
The Scottish Government data shows for Perth and Kinross Council the number of households in TA increased by 37 (63%) from 59 in 2024 to 96 in 2025. There were no children in TA on 30 September 2025.
The scale of this increase is largely driven by an unusually low baseline figure of households in this situation in September 2024. If we look at a six-month comparison between March and September 2025, the increase is only eight cases, or 9%. A 12-month comparison between June 2024 and June 2025 also shows an increase of only eight cases or 9%. It should be noted that while the 63% increase overstates the extent of the issue in Perth and Kinross, it also highlights the pressure the Council is experiencing regarding the demand for TA and the proportion of people presenting as homeless who also require temporary accommodation.
The most up-to-date position on households in TA is the HL2 return we submitted to the Scottish Government as a snapshot of the position on 31 December 2025. At this point, there were 89 households and only six children in TA.
Despite the pressure and the increase in households in TA, Perth & Kinross Council continues to perform well in terms of minimising the length of stay in TA.
As outlined in the chart below, our performance shows significant and consistent performance maintaining a lower than the national average length of stay in temporary accommodation - 75 days compared with the national average of 237 days, and only Aberdeenshire Council has a lower average number of days (72). This low figure indicates that our Home First model is continuing to work effectively and achieve good outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.
Homelessness outcomes
One of the objectives of our Home First approach is to minimise the duration of homelessness where it cannot be prevented. The performance indicator for this is referred to 'case duration' and is the average number of days from assessment to discharge of duty for homelessness cases.
The chart above compares the national average duration of homelessness on the basis outlined above with that of Perth and Kinross Council. It clearly shows the Council has consistently maintained a local average case duration significantly below the national average.
For the six-month period April to September 2025, the average case duration in Perth and Kinross is 81 days, compared to the national average of 277 days, with only Aberdeenshire Council having a lower average case duration of 68 days. This is in line with our Home First commitment to minimise the duration of homelessness, and again indicates that, despite increased demand, we are continuing to deliver good outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. The YTD position to the end of January 2026 is an average case duration of 76 days.
Refugee/Leave to remain status
The Scottish Government has included substantial data on this population which now accounts for 16% of homelessness presentations nationally. The population relates to anyone who is lawfully present in the UK and not a British, Swiss or EU citizen (for example, those granted refugee or leave to remain status) and who meets the required eligibility criteria, as well as Ukrainian nationals lawfully present under specific UK visa schemes.
Some of the key points:
- 3,200 homelessness applications were received from this cohort in the six-month period between April and September 2025. More than half of this total were in Glasgow, with only 25 recorded for Perth and Kinross.
- 4,840 households nationally from this cohort were in temporary homeless accommodation in Scotland on 30 September 2025. This is an increase of 1,530 compared to September 2024 and an increase of 2,685 compared to September 2023. Perth & Kinross Council had 10 people from this cohort in temporary accommodation on the reporting date.
- 1,520 households from this cohort moved onto settled accommodation (mostly social rented properties) during the six-month reporting period, including 20 in Perth and Kinross.
Our internal reporting tools show a total of 46 homelessness presentations from people in this cohort in the year to date. The numbers of households in this cohort in Perth and Kinross remains much lower than the national average.
The Council will continue as appropriate, based on Home Office decisions regarding people's refugee or leave to remain status, to support moves to settled accommodation.
Key aspects for Perth and Kinross
- The figures broadly reflect the operational challenges for the Council associated with the demand for temporary accommodation. However, it should also be noted that the specific comparisons made in the report overstate our on the ground experience of how much demand has grown. We will look at how our reporting and recording might better align with national data-gathering approaches going forward.
- As a Council, we have already committed to a comprehensive review of temporary accommodation to ensure we can continue to meet our statutory duties short-term and provide greater resilience and flexibility longer-term.
- We are still delivering excellent outcomes for people experiencing homelessness in terms of the key indicators - live cases, average days in TA, average case duration.
- As we move forward with our Affordable Housing Supply Programme we must factor in the increasing numbers of single people in the homelessness system. More than 70% of presentations nationally are from single people, and in Perth and Kinross this has been as high as 78% in 2024/25.
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