Homelessness Minister Iain Wright has praised the achievements of local authorities as new figures revealed that the numbers of households in temporary accommodation fell by 11% in comparison to the same period last year.

The Minister welcomed the news that the numbers were continuing to move in the right direction from 87,120 in the first quarter of 2007 to 77,510 in 2008, but said there was still more to do to help more families into settled homes.

The figures show that the South East, North East and the East Midlands have now all achieved the Government's 2010 target of 50% reduction in the numbers of households living in temporary accommodation from the baseline set in 2004. Overall one third of Local Authorities have reached the target, with more on the way. Iain Wright also singled out Croydon for praise for being the first London council to meet the 2010 target against a very challenging background.

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Mr Wright said: "2003 was the first year that local authorities were required to have a homelessness strategy in place and we have seen an almost continuous decrease in numbers ever since. Those who have reached the target two years early should be rightly proud of their efforts, but we know we have more to do to assist families into settled homes - the challenge now is for others to meet this early success."

The homelessness statistics for the first quarter of 2008 showed that Homeless Acceptances were down 10% from the same period last year, due to the proactive and effective approach that housing authorities and their partners had undertaken on their prevention agenda.

(CD)