ODPMs homelessness data is a decade old

The criticism came from professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick of the University of York, who conducted research for charity Centrepoint that showed up to 52,000 16- to 24- year-olds are homeless in England and Wales.

Fitzpatrick said: “There has been no research into the number of young homeless people in [England and Wales] for 10 years, but this is urgently needed in order to plan and deliver services effectively.”

ODPM figures show that 99,380 households lived in accommodation arranged under homelessness legislation in England alone in June 2004. But it has no record of homelessness by age.

The research, published on Monday, was based on extrapolations from visits to council homelessness units in Scotland by people aged 16 to 24.

It estimated as many as 6700 young people had slept rough in the last three months.

Balbir Chakrit, policy director of Centrepoint, said: “I was surprised by the number of young people who have gone to local authorities, since many of those we deal with either don’t go or leave as soon as they get there.”

Deputy prime minister John Prescott responded that it was not a good idea to extrapolate from Scottish data and that the problem was best looked at in England at a regional and local level.

But the ODPM has commissioned national research on homelessness levels in England among families and young people living independently aged 16 to 17.

“Commissioning this shows they accept the need for good data on homelessness to plan and deliver services,” said Fitzpatrick.