Bristol is challenging the national trend which is showing a sharp rise in the number of people becoming homeless, new figures have revealed.

Bristol has not seen the sort of rise in the number of people becoming homeless that has been recorded nationally and it is performing better than a number of other, comparable, core cities.

It is the fourth-best performing authority in terms of preventing homelessness among seven core cities after Birmingham, Newcastle and Nottingham – ahead of Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester.

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In all, the council, through internal and externally-commissioned services, prevented 2,969 people becoming homeless in 2011-12, the highest level the authority has ever recorded and an increase of eight per cent on 2010-11.

The annual statistics indicate that the economic downturn has led to an increased demand on the city’s homelessness services, as anticipated.

However, the council has prepared for this challenge and has maintained its focus on intervening at an early stage in order to prevent someone becoming homeless in the first place, something which is reflected in the latest figures.

(CD/GK)