Housing options (PREVENT1) statistics in Scotland: 2023-24

Approaches for housing support

Continued increase in Housing Options approaches after a previous long-term reduction

Chart 1: Annual Housing Options approaches and open cases as at 31 March, 2014-15 to 2023-24

Chart 1 shows there had been a downward trend in the number of approaches between 2014-15 and 2020-21 (noting that 2020-21 figures were impacted by COVID-19 restrictions), with these increasing year on year since. The 2023-24 figures are 5% higher than the previous year, although 29% lower than the start of the data collection in 2014-15.

Open cases have seen an increasing trend over the same period, although the lastest year is slightly lower compared to 2023 (1%).

These trends are similar to homelessness applications which also experienced a decrease in 2020-21 and have been rising since, while open cases having been continually rising.

There were 42,161 unique households that made the 44,952 approaches in 2023-24. The vast majority of households made one approach (94%), with 1% making three or more.

Glasgow reported the largest numerical increase in approaches from 12,121 to 13,729 (13%) compared to last year. The next largest was Edinurgh (from 4,722 to 5,341, also 13%).

However, increases were not observed across the board. Indeed, half (16) of local authorities recorded decreases compared to the previous year.

The largest numerical decrease was in Dundee, with 803 (50%) fewer approaches – 801 in 2023-24 compared to 1,604 in 2022-23. Dundee noted this was due to an operational change whereby previously prevention cases were also opened for homelessness cases, but this is no longer the procedure.

The national rate of approaches is 166 per 10,000 households, though this varies greatly between local authorities. Glasgow has the highest rate (417) followed by Perth & Kinross (305). The lowest rates are recorded in Eilean Siar and Highland (2 and 4, respectively). These variations are likely reflective of local authorities taking different approaches to Housing Options services.