Rough sleeping figures cannot be trusted, says statistics chief
“More or Less” should become a national institution on Radio 4. I have noticed, in this post truth era, an increasing tendency amongst official organisations to offer half truths and figures without context. Anyone who lives in a small town will have seen a huge rise in the number of people sleeping rough. This “good news” issued by Government suggested that there had been a relative decline in this phenomenon. Thank goodness, before we all glibly swallow the headline, for the work of the official version of “More or Less” the UK Statistics Authority….
Claims that rough sleeping is falling in England should not be trusted until the government has explained how an emergency funding scheme for the worst-affected areas might have skewed the latest figures, the chair of the UK statistics Authority (UKSA) has said.
Sir David Norgrove’s comments are the latest development in a row over the apparent 2% fall in rough sleeping in England in 2018, which ministers said was a sign the government’s Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) was tackling the homelessness crisis.
In a significant intervention, Norgrove said the official figures for 2018 should not be used to make claims about rough sleeping in England until the government addresses concerns that some councils that received RSI funding had deliberately underreported the scale of the crisis in their area.