Data from the government shows councils across England spent £2.8bn on temporary accommodation in 2024/25.
New research, published yesterday, shows over 131,100 households in England live in temporary accommodation – the highest number documented since records began. This includes 169,050 homeless children.
As a result of so many families living in such conditions, councils experienced a 25% increase in costs for temporary accommodation in 2024/25, where they spent £2.8bn.
What’s more, over the last five years local authorities have seen their spending on temporary accommodation increase by 118%, spending over £10bn.
Commenting on the news, Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at Shelter, said: ‘While the housing emergency is draining billions in public funds, families across the country are paying the ultimate price. Money that should be helping them into a secure home is instead shelled out on grim temporary accommodation, just to keep people off the streets.
‘There’s nowhere near enough social homes and as a result homelessness has reached record levels, with thousands of desperate families showing up to their council’s doorstep for help. Private providers are cashing in on this crisis, charging eyewatering sums for rooms where children are forced to eat, sleep and do their homework on beds shared with siblings.’
According to the new figures, out of the £2.8bn, £844m was spent on housing people in emergency B&Bs and hostels. Likewise, 40% of the total was spent on nightly paid, self-contained accommodations – a 79% increase on the previous year.
‘We can’t afford to ignore the need for genuinely affordable social homes – the only solution to the housing emergency,’ MacRae continued. ‘The government needs to ramp up to 90,000 a year by setting a clear overall target for the delivery of social rent homes.’
In similar vein, Cllr Tom Hunt, chair of the Local Government Association’s growth committee, added: ‘These figures show how the temporary accommodation crisis facing councils is only worsening. As more and more people turn to their council for help, local authorities are having to stretch budgets further.
‘Councils need changes to the way that government reimburse them for temporary accommodation costs. Current housing benefit reimbursement rules for temporary accommodation are outdated – councils must pay landlords according to current market rates, whilst reimbursement for councils is linked to 2011 rental rates.
‘This needs to change, and government needs to act, specifically by making the rate the current rate, as opposed to one that’s 15 years old, as well as restoring the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to at least the 30th percentile of local rents beyond 2025-26.’
Photo by Francesco Ungaro via UnSplash
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