A new report, to be presented to policymakers today, uncovers a huge rise in official reports concerning deaths amongst homeless or precariously housed people in recent years.
The investigations, known as Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports, are carried out by Coroners, who are increasingly highlighting specific related issues such as a lack of social housing, the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ which lowers benefit entitlement, and poor mental health support provision.
The findings, led by the University of Bristol, reveal that between 2017-21 there were 18 such cases and this number has since rocketed to 38 over a much shorter period from 2023 to 2025. This equates to an annual three-fold increase in PFD reports.
Report author Dr Edward Kirton-Darling, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol, said: “This research is the first to look at how Coroners – who have to investigate these cases – report on issues connected to homelessness and precarious housing to prevent future death.
“The results are quite startling. In the earlier data set, when the person who died was experiencing homelessness, this was often only mentioned in passing, while more recent reports show many more Coroners are actively focusing on this.”
In the later data set, the majority of reports focus specifically on homelessness and housing. The report also showed that Coroners are sending them to bodies responsible for housing, such as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, at a rate of one report every eight weeks – up from one a year compared to the earlier studied period.
The report, which calls for improvements to the investigation system at central Government, Chief Coroner and individual Coroner level, also reveals significant regional disparity in the reporting.
“Despite numerous deaths of homeless people in cities like Bristol, Southampton, Nottingham and Exeter, there were no reports by Coroners. There were none from the East Midlands as a region, or from South East England, except for Brighton,” Dr Kirton-Darling explained.
“By contrast, three cities – namely Brighton, Manchester and London – produced the majority (58%) of the reports. This can be set against research by the Museum of Homelessness, which counts the deaths of people experiencing homelessness and shows that these three cities amount to 37% of the number of people who died while homelessness in England in 2024. Clearly, some Coroners could do more to ensure they identify issues connected to homelessness in their investigations.”
Not all deaths will require investigation by a Coroner, and not all investigations by a Coroner will lead to a PFD. Coroners are a type of specialist judge, often lawyers or doctors, who scrutinise deaths that are violent, unnatural, sudden, or unexplained.
Dr Kirton-Darling added: “The numbers of PFDs may appear small, but emerging from a legal process of scrutiny of death by an independent Coroner, they constitute a particularly important indicator of social issues which require national public and policymaker attention.”
Ciara Bartlam, a barrister and former specialist homeless officer, said: “Having worked in homelessness and now as a barrister representing bereaved families at inquests and inquiries, I can see the urgent need for action that this report makes the case for so succinctly.
“This research very clearly shows that the system must start to learn from the deaths of people experiencing homelessness – which requires data, training for coroners and a national oversight mechanism that is long overdue. This is a vital piece of work, and it is just the start.”
Report
‘Dying Homeless: Preventing Future Deaths’ by E. Kirton-Darling
