THE city council has revealed it has fulfilled a commitment made last year, to provide an additional 350 homes for people facing homelessness in Leicester.
Since last spring, the council has invested more than £45m to purchase 253 units of temporary accommodation, as well as 100 new leases on properties that will serve as permanent homes.
This has helped to reduce the number of people who were staying in bed and breakfast accommodation for more than 6 weeks from 188 in July 2024, to just seven this month.
The council has also improved on its target to increase its team of homeless prevention officers from 14.5 to 25, with 27.5 full-time posts now recruited to.
The team works closely with people facing homelessness to help them find ways to stay in their own homes, including working with landlords to prevent evictions.
The achievements come on top of the £200 million the council has previously invested to deliver 1,100 new council homes in the city.
And the council is set to exceed its target of 1,500 permanent new, affordable homes, with a final total of 1,600 projected by 2027.
Deputy city mayor for housing Cllr Elly Cutkelvin said: “Thanks to the hard work of council officers and the support and co-operation of our partners, we’ve made major progress in the last 18 months in dealing with the impact of the national housing crisis.
“However, the crisis has definitely not gone away, and we are still seeing a huge rise in the number of people asking for our help.
“Even with all the measures we are taking, the council is still facing additional pressures of between £6million and £12million every year, which is why we are continuing to call on the Government for realistic funding so that we can provide these vital housing and homelessness services.”
The overall number of people in temporary accommodation in the city has increased, rising from 449 in April 2024 to 630 in August 2025.
The council’s homelessness strategy sets outs how it will use prevention, intervention, recovery and partnership working to deal locally with the national homelessness crisis. The strategy is available on the city council’s website: Leicester’s homelessness strategy 2023-2028