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Citizens Advice helped more than 8,000 people with homelessness issues in October, the highest monthly figure ever recorded.

A rising number of Section 21 no-fault evictions for private rental tenants, often led by rising mortgage interest payments for landlords, was listed as a significant contributor.

Suella Braverman was sacked as Home Secretary on Monday, having said earlier in the month that homelessness was a “lifestyle choice”.

Citizens Advice (CA, formerly Citizens Advice Bureau) is a charitable organisation that provides confidential information and advice to assist people with problems including those related to debt and housing.

They record data on people that come to them for help so they are able to be aware of changing trends and issues affecting certain groups more than others.

In addition to those facing homelessness in October, almost 20,000 people were given a food bank referral, the third highest month on record, and more than 45,000 received debt help, the most since 2014.

More than half of people CA helped with homelessness were private tenants, a reversal of pre-pandemic trends when social tenants were most exposed.

Sky News analysis earlier in the year showed that renters could be more vulnerable to higher housing costs caused by interest rates than mortgage-holders, despite not being directly exposed themselves.

More than 2,000 private renters were helped by CA last month after being served with Section 21 no-fault eviction notice.

That figure is also a new record high. It’s the fourth time the record has been broken this year.

The number of people seeking help with no-fault evictions were at or close to record highs in all English regions, but have been falling in Wales over the past 12 months.

The Welsh government changed the rules around renting on 1 December 2022, to protect tenants if landlords failed to make necessary repairs, and give more notice ahead of no-fault evictions.

CA analysis shows that single parents, black people and women were more likely to have been affected by no-fault evictions than others.

Dame Clare Moriarty, Citizens Advice Chief Executive, said: “We’ve kind of gone beyond a crisis into something which is concretised. A mismatch between income and expenditure for many, many people on low incomes.

“Next week is the autumn statement, which is one of the key moments when governments can – if they choose – shift the dial.

“I think a very strong message that we would give based on this data is that it needs to be pulling levers to alleviate the problems that people are coming to us or to other charities with.”

Citizens Advice recommended policy changes in three areas:

1. Increase benefits with inflation so that they are back in line with where they were a few years ago

2. More energy price support this winter – Dame Moriarty said “although energy prices will come down compared to last year, in the absence of the sorts of support that was in place last year, people are going to be paying around the same and we know that there are many, many people who can’t afford to pay that”.

3. To increase Local Housing Allowance so that it keeps up with rent increases

Housing allowance provision falls behind rental price increases

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates are used to calculate the maximum housing benefit that can be received by tenants renting from private landlords.

They had previously been linked to the cost of 30th percentile rents (those at the cheaper end of the rental market, 20% lower than the average rent in the area).

However, this benefit has been frozen since 2020, meaning it has not risen at all in the last few years of rapid rent inflation.

Official data from the Valuation Office Agency shows that by 2022, a significant gap had emerged between housing allowances and actual rent costs across every area in England.

The biggest shortfall is in central London, at 30.6% on average across all property sizes. The average 30th percentile rent for a one-bedroom property was £394, with housing benefit capped at £295.50.

Outside of London, the biggest gaps between housing benefit and rent were around Manchester, with a 17.4% deficit in Tameside and Glossop, and a 16.5% deficit in Central Greater Manchester.

The average 30th percentile rent for a two bedroom property in Central Greater Manchester was £180.66, with a £31.07 (17.2%) shortfall from the £149.59 allowance.

The latest detailed breakdown of rental market data from the Valuation Office Agency is only available to September 2022, but since then rents have continued to rise and, with housing benefit frozen, these shortfalls continue to grow.

Private rental data inflation for September 2023 showed a 5.6% average increase in rents across England, the highest on record going back to 2006.

The latest CA cost of living survey found that “the vast majority of housing benefit and universal credit claimants renting privately now report a shortfall between benefit income and rent of more than £100 per month”.

Citizens Advice has called for the unfreezing of Housing Benefit as a matter of urgency: “Looking ahead to the Autumn Statement, relinking LHA to the 30th percentile of rent costs in each Broad Rental Market Area is the most immediate priority.

“The situation for housing benefit and universal credit housing element claimants today is at least as serious as 2020, when the link was last restored after a period of being frozen.”


The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

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UK economy figures not as bad as they look despite GDP fall, analysts say

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UK economy figures not as bad as they look despite GDP fall, analysts say

The UK economy unexpectedly shrank in May, even after the worst of Donald Trump’s tariffs were paused, official figures showed.

A standard measure of economic growth, gross domestic product (GDP), contracted 0.1% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Rather than a fall being anticipated, growth of 0.1% was forecast by economists polled by Reuters as big falls in production and construction were seen.

It followed a 0.3% contraction in April, when Mr Trump announced his country-specific tariffs and sparked a global trade war.

A 90-day pause on these import taxes, which has been extended, allowed more normality to resume.

This was borne out by other figures released by the ONS on Friday.

Exports to the United States rose £300m but “remained relatively low” following a “substantial decrease” in April, the data said.

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Overall, there was a “large rise in goods imports and a fall in goods exports”.

A ‘disappointing’ but mixed picture

It’s “disappointing” news, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said. She and the government as a whole have repeatedly said growing the economy was their number one priority.

“I am determined to kickstart economic growth and deliver on that promise”, she added.

But the picture was not all bad.

Growth recorded in March was revised upwards, further indicating that companies invested to prepare for tariffs. Rather than GDP of 0.2%, the ONS said on Friday the figure was actually 0.4%.

It showed businesses moved forward activity to be ready for the extra taxes. Businesses were hit with higher employer national insurance contributions in April.

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The expansion in March means the economy still grew when the three months are looked at together.

While an interest rate cut in August had already been expected, investors upped their bets of a 0.25 percentage point fall in the Bank of England’s base interest rate.

Such a cut would bring down the rate to 4% and make borrowing cheaper.

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Is Britain going bankrupt?

Analysts from economic research firm Pantheon Macro said the data was not as bad as it looked.

“The size of the manufacturing drop looks erratic to us and should partly unwind… There are signs that GDP growth can rebound in June”, said Pantheon’s chief UK economist, Rob Wood.

Why did the economy shrink?

The drops in manufacturing came mostly due to slowed car-making, less oil and gas extraction and the pharmaceutical industry.

The fall was not larger because the services industry – the largest part of the economy – expanded, with law firms and computer programmers having a good month.

It made up for a “very weak” month for retailers, the ONS said.

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UK economy remains fragile – and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner

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UK economy remains fragile - and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner

Monthly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures are volatile and, on their own, don’t tell us much.

However, the picture emerging a year since the election of the Labour government is not hugely comforting.

This is a government that promised to turbocharge economic growth, the key to improving livelihoods and the public finances. Instead, the economy is mainly flatlining.

Output shrank in May by 0.1%. That followed a 0.3% drop in April.

Ministers were celebrating a few months ago as data showed the economy grew by 0.7% in the first quarter.

Hangover from artificial growth

However, the subsequent data has shown us that much of that growth was artificial, with businesses racing to get orders out of the door to beat the possible introduction of tariffs. Property transactions were also brought forward to beat stamp duty changes.

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In April, we experienced the hangover as orders and industrial output dropped. Services also struggled as demand for legal and conveyancing services dropped after the stamp duty changes.

Many of those distortions have now been smoothed out, but the manufacturing sector still struggled in May.

Signs of recovery

Manufacturing output fell by 1% in May, but more up-to-date data suggests the sector is recovering.

“We expect both cars and pharma output to improve as the UK-US trade deal comes into force and the volatility unwinds,” economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics said.

Meanwhile, the services sector eked out growth of 0.1%.

A 2.7% month-to-month fall in retail sales suppressed growth in the sector, but that should improve with hot weather likely to boost demand at restaurants and pubs.

Struggles ahead

It is unlikely, however, to massively shift the dial for the economy, the kind of shift the Labour government has promised and needs in order to give it some breathing room against its fiscal rules.

The economy remains fragile, and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner.

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Is Britain going bankrupt?

Concerns that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering tax hikes could weigh on consumer confidence, at a time when businesses are already scaling back hiring because of national insurance tax hikes.

Inflation is also expected to climb in the second half of the year, further weighing on consumers and businesses.

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Government to announce new scheme as it ramps up AI adoption with backing from Facebook owner Meta

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Government to announce new scheme as it ramps up AI adoption with backing from Facebook owner Meta

The government is speeding up its adoption of AI to try and encourage economic growth – with backing from Facebook parent Meta.

It will today announce a $1m (£740,000) scheme to hire up to 10 AI “experts” to help with the adoption of the technology.

Sir Keir Starmer has spoken repeatedly about wanting to use the developing technology as part of his “plan for change” to improve the UK – with claims it could produce tens of billions in savings and efficiencies.

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The government is hoping the new hires could help with problems like translating classified documents en masse, speeding up planning applications or help with emergency responses when power or internet outages occur.

The funding for the roles is coming from Meta, through the Alan Turing Institute. Adverts will go live next week, with the new fellowships expected to start at the beginning of 2026.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “This fellowship is the best of AI in action – open, practical, and built for public good. It’s about delivery, not just ideas – creating real tools that help government work better for people.”

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He added: “The fellowship will help scale that kind of impact across government, and develop sovereign capabilities where the UK must lead, like national security and critical infrastructure.”

The projects will all be based on open source models, meaning there will be a minimal cost for the government when it comes to licensing.

Meta describes its own AI model, Llama, as open source, although there are questions around whether it truly qualifies for that title due to parts of its code base not being published.

The owner of Facebook has also sponsored several studies into the benefits of government adopting more open source AI tools.

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Minister reveals how AI could improve public services

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Mr Kyle’s Department for Science and Technology has been working on its mission to increase the uptake of AI within government, including through the artificial intelligence “incubator”, under which these fellowships will fall.

The secretary of state has pointed to the success of Caddy – a tool that helps call centre workers search for answers in official documents faster – and its expanding use across government as an example of an AI success story.

He said the tool, developed with Citizens Advice, shows how AI can “boost productivity, improve decision-making, and support frontline staff”. A trial suggested it could cut waiting times for calls in half.

My Kyle also recently announced a deal with Google to provide tech support to government and assist with modernisation of data.

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Joel Kaplan, the chief global affairs officer from Meta, said: “Open-source AI models are helping researchers and developers make major scientific and medical breakthroughs, and they have the potential to transform the delivery of public services too.

“This partnership with ATI will help the government access some of the brightest minds and the technology they need to solve big challenges – and to do it openly and in the public interest.”

Jean Innes, the head of the Alan Turing Institute, said: “These fellowships will offer an innovative way to match AI experts with the real world challenges our public services are facing.”

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