Over 4,500 primary school classes worth of homeless children are
spending Christmas in temporary accommodation amid concerns of a
national homelessness crisis, the Local Government Association
warns today.
Latest figures for England show there are a total of 120,710
dependent homeless children living in temporary accommodation,
with 2,320 of these in bed and breakfasts.
The LGA said the number of children who will be waking up on
Christmas morning in temporary accommodation highlights the
urgent need to ensure the building of more affordable homes to
rent and ensuring the private rented sector is affordable for
people claiming housing related benefits.
Councils have great ambition to get on with building homes, with
land for more than 2.6 million homes allocated in Local Plans and
nine in 10 planning applications being approved. But the right
powers must be provided to incentivise developers to get
building, including being able to charge full council tax for
every unbuilt development from the point the original planning
permission expires.
Meanwhile, Local Housing Allowance rates have been frozen since
March 2020 meaning the private sector is becoming less and less
feasible for households dependent on housing support.
With the number of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions increasing,
the cost of living continuing to rise and more Ukrainian arrivals
presenting as homeless, councils are increasingly concerned of a
national homelessness crisis. These pressures, combined with
depleting social housing stock and an unaffordable and overly
competitive private rented market, feels like a perfect storm for
services trying to prevent homelessness.
The LGA says urgent work is needed to prevent further disruption
to children’s schooling, home lives and social lives, which have
already been significantly impacted as a result of the pandemic
and subsequent lockdowns.
It says the Government must look at developing a
cross-departmental homelessness prevention strategy which
addresses the drivers and levers of homelessness within policy
which reviews Local Housing Allowance rates, prioritises a
significant increase in social housing and uses the upcoming
renter’s reform to create a private rented sector that is safe,
stable, and affordable.
Cllr David Renard, LGA housing spokesperson, said:
“Living in temporary accommodation can cause great disruption for
children and families and is especially difficult for many
families at Christmas time. As we face the reality of a national
homelessness crisis, it is crucial we make addressing the chronic
housing shortage a priority.
“Suitable housing must be found for those already homeless, but
we must also ensure everything possible is being done to combat
the rising cost of living and prevent further people from
becoming homeless.
“The best way to improve housing security is to address the
unaffordability of housing by giving councils the right powers
and investment to build 100,000 new social rent homes a year, and
to reform the Right to Buy scheme so that it is more sustainable.
Government should also use the upcoming finance settlement to
urgently review Local Housing Allowance rates to ensure that at
least a third of the market is affordable for people claiming
housing related benefits.”
Notes to editors
Statutory homelessness
statistics in England: April to June 2022
Number of primary school
classes equivalent calculated based on the average primary school
class size being 26.6
