On Sunday, 15 February 2026, Sky News reported from Bristol on the growing number of people living in vans, which council data suggests has risen to above 600 and quadrupled in the last five years.

There is no official data on how many live this lifestyle across the UK; however, some councils have estimations. In Brighton, 0.1% of the population (300 people), Glastonbury 0.22% (150) and Falmouth, 2.2% (50). Vanlife.uk suggests there are between 30,000 (conservative) to 180,000 (upper bound) ‘van-lifers’.

Insurance company Zego.com reports that UK van registrations under 3.5 tonnes rose by 282,139 at the end of 2022, to 341,455 in 2023, a 21% increase.

While social media has certainly fuelled a van lifestyle, Sky News framed its report on the hidden side of the cost-of-living crisis, with those interviewed highlighting a lack of available and affordable housing as the reason for their accommodation choice.

This fits with the Bristol Vehicle Dweller community, whose survey cited by Bristol Council identified that an inability to find or afford anywhere else to stay was the reason most gave for living in a van.

The report also highlighted that anti-social behaviour, real and perceived, which can create frictions between communities are vehicle dwellers; particularly when it comes to littering and waste.

Staying afloat when priced out

Vans are not the only non-traditional accommodation people are opting for, as in recent years there has been a considerable increase in people living on boats. In their 2025 National Boat Count, the Canal and River Trust (CRT) identified more than 33,000 boats on their waterways, with an 11.9% increase in those without home moorings (cheaper option) and 1.9% decrease in those with home moorings.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) estimates 10,000 people live on the capital’s rivers and canals, and there are 8,580 narrowboats in the UK registered as ‘permanent homes’

In coastal marinas up and down the country, permanent moorings of engineless boats and purpose-built floating ‘apartments’ are increasingly commonplace, with facilities increasingly using key fob data to ensure boat dwellers pay for ‘heavy use mooring’ or are removed due to contravention of rules prohibiting ‘live aboard’.

It should come as no surprise that the housing crisis is pushing people into non-traditional accommodation because a van or boat may not be enjoyable in the winter but paying handsomely for the privilege of living in unsuitable accommodation, with people you would rather not live with and under location limiting budgets, has become a compromise too far.

Housing crisis is a drain on society

In Bristol, annual rents between December 2024 and 2025 rose by 7.5%. In the same period, average house prices rose by 1.1% to £357,000, with first time buyers paying £318,000. This is a lower house price rise than across England, which stood at 2.2% and £293,000, but higher than rents, which in England rose by 4%, with average rents being £1,368.

The cost of living has not been helped by a lack of new supply, but it has been exacerbated by councils preferring to have social and affordable homes given to them by the market, rather than building these homes themselves.

The consequence has seen key demographics, such as older people, ex-service personnel, those transitioning from welfare to work, the homeless and rough sleepers, to name a few, not only being let down by under-supply but costing taxpayers more, as hotels and private accommodation charge at or above market rates, particularly where needs are complex or temporary.

The costs don’t stop there. The ’Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2022’ introduced stronger powers to remove encampments and while there is no data on how much police time is now being used on such offences, councils have been introducing private enforcement to remove van dwellers.

Bristol Council has gone as far as producing a vehicle dweller policy, which not only ensures council tax can be collected on council van pitches but works with non-local van dwellers to see them return to a place where they have a local connection.

Non-traditional accommodation is of course a symptom of the housing crisis, but the housing crisis is a broad challenge. Councils should not view the solution as providing pitches for van dwellers and instead should build more homes, particularly family housing, which would unlock smaller properties for van dwellers but currently occupied by overcrowded families.

A system which costs more, requires greater levels of public sector resource, directly reduces local revenues and disrupts community harmony, is a system which has already failed.

The Labour government is trying to fix planning and get homes built and their ambition is very clear; however, fixing a quagmire which has been in place for quarter of a century and rooted decades before that is impossible without revolution. And even if planning is fixed, the cost of building is increasing and set to rise again, in large part due to taxation and levies.

The housing crisis has not just moved to our streets but our roads too, it is literally where the van is.

Rico Wojtulewicz, Director of Policy and Market Insight at the NFB