Housing Options Prevent1 Statistics In Scotland, 2023-24

29th October 2024

An annual update on Housing Options (PREVENT1) Statistics covering 2023-24 has been released today.

Findings for that period show:

There were 44,952 Housing Options approaches (from 42,161 unique households). This is an increase of 5% compared to 2022-23.

The number of open Housing Options cases has been increasing over time, although the latest figure of 29,900 as at 31 March 2024 is 1% lower compared to 2023 (30,075).

General housing options advice (20% of all approaches), asked to leave (17% of all approaches) and risk of losing accommodation (11% of all approaches) are the most common reasons for approach.

Over a fifth (21%) of approaches are from parental / family home or relatives; 18% are from a private rented tenancy.
The most common prevention activity is general housing advice (43%), informing clients of their rights under homelessness legislation (28%) and rent, repairs, referrals and negotiations with landlords (12%).

Just under half of Housing Options approaches resulted in a homelessness application (49%). This is less than 52% in 2022-23 and 57% in 2021-22. However, this is a numerical increase in the last year from 21,390 to 22,105 (3%).

Across Scotland it took an average of 180 days to close a Housing Options cases (that did not result in a homelessness application). This has increased from 137 days in 2022-23.