Councils in England paying £1 7bn a year to house people in temporary homes

A surge in people being forced to live in bed and breakfasts and other temporary homes in England is costing the taxpayer £1.7bn a year, “shameful” council data analysed by the Local Government Association has revealed. The worsening shortage of social housing and increasingly unaffordable private rents are among reasons councils are now paying for 104,000 households to live in temporary accommodation – more than at any time in the past 25 years. The closure of Home Office-funded hotels for Afghan asylum seekers in the coming weeks was expected to exacerbate the problem, town hall leaders said, as they called an emergency summit for next week to discuss the still “rapidly” increasing cost, which they said was “wholly unsustainable”. The annual cost of paying rents would be enough to build about 100,000 new homes over five years. It is twice as high as it was in 2015-16. It rose to £1.6bn last year and has now risen again by 9%. Stephen Holt, the leader of Eastbourne borough council, which is hosting a summit on Tuesday of more than 100 councils, said: “The situation is stark. Councils provide a safety net for the most vulnerable people … and that safety net is at real risk of failing.”
More than 130,000 children are living in temporary housing – the highest ever number. Housing campaigners said temporary accommodation included “cramped hostels and grotty B&Bs, where family members are forced to share beds and children have no space to play or do their homework”.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/oct/27/councils-in-england-paying-17bn-a-year-to-house-people-in-temporary-homes

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