More than half the successful applications for help from Rutland households facing homelessness in the last year were made by someone in paid work at the time.

Under the Homelessness Reduction Act, which took effect in April 2018, councils are required to take preventative measures where households are facing a homelessness crisis, and relieve it when it occurs.

Government figures show that, of the 42 households for which Rutland County Council accepted a prevention or relief duty, just over half were in work.

Councillor Alan Walters, Cabinet Member for Safeguarding Adults, said: "The threat of homelessness is something that hangs over an increasing number of families in the UK.

"Over the past year in Rutland there were 42 households who needed our support due to the risk of homelessness.

"The main reasons why they needed our help were relationship break-ups, the end of private tenancies or changes in family circumstances – all of which can affect people regardless of whether or not they are in employment.

"In all cases, we take our duty of care towards our residents extremely seriously and will keep doing all we can to support people at risk of losing their homes."

In total, councils in England recorded 118,700 households as homeless and a further 145,020 as being under imminent threat of homelessness in 2018/19.

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Of those, 71,210 applications for council support were made by a household member in full or part-time paid employment at the time.

The figures are based only on the employment status of the household member who applied for support. If the applicant was unemployed, but another household member was in work, the Government data does not pick this up.