Spending by councils in England on emergency accommodation for homeless families rose by nearly 80 per cent in the year to March 2024, research has shown, exacerbating the crisis in local authority finances.
The cost of housing homeless families in stop-gap accommodation including hostels, bed and breakfasts and other places charged on a nightly basis soared to £732mn in 2023-24 from £411mn in 2022-23, according to researchers at the London School of Economics.
Homelessness charity Crisis, which commissioned the LSE research, said the big jump in councils paying for last-minute housing reflected the increasingly acute homelessness crisis facing local government.
“This shows that councils are at breaking point, both in terms of being able to manage homelessness but also the quality of accommodation they’re able to procure,” said Francesca Albanese, Crisis director of policy.
The report said emergency accommodation was “an expensive, reactive solution to homelessness” that did little to address the root causes of homelessness, which included a long-term shortage of social housing and welfare benefits not keeping up with rents.
The Local Government Association, a representative body, said the increase in homeless families placed in emergency accommodation — up from 45,000 in 2022-23 to 56,000 in 2023-24 — was placing “unsustainable pressure” on council budgets.
The 78 per cent rise in spending on such accommodation last year far outstripped the 24 per cent rise in the number of households requiring support, reflecting the rising cost of B&Bs and short-term private rentals.
Overall, the total number of households eligible for homelessness support increased 9 per cent to almost 325,000 in 2023-24, driven in part by a three-fold increase in people left homeless after being required to leave Home Office asylum accommodation.
The LGA added that the freezing of central government subsidies for stop-gap accommodation at 2011 levels was forcing councils to spend more on emergency provision while reducing resources available for homelessness prevention.
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In its general election manifesto, Labour pledged a “new cross-government strategy” including mayors and local councils to address the immediate causes of homelessness.
The government has also promised to embark on “the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation” to tackle the underlying cause, which is a long-standing shortage of affordable housing.
OECD data shows the UK has by far the highest rate of homelessness in the advanced world, and more than double the rate of Germany or the US.
Local authority housing departments routinely place homeless households — often families — in temporary accommodation such as hotels before they can make permanent arrangements.
In recent years the number of people legally entitled to such emergency support has rocketed as higher rents have led to more evictions.
At the same time the supply of social housing, into which councils would traditionally move such families, has become scarcer.
Charities have long warned that the government is therefore footing soaring bills for children to live in unsuitable and in some cases dangerous conditions, often miles away from their schools and social networks.
In the year to September 2024, 80 children died in temporary accommodation, according to the National Child Mortality Database, a programme funded by the NHS.
Shared Health. a charity that works in Greater Manchester, said the figure accounted for 3 per cent of all child deaths in that 12-month period, describing it as both “disproportionate” and likely to be an underestimate.
Chief executive Laura Neilson said: “We know that if you repeatedly move a child or baby, place them in accommodation without a cot or cooking facilities and disconnect a family from support, the chance of death is increased.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the LSE report laid bare “the devastating homelessness crisis we have inherited”, and that it was committing £1bn in extra funds to address the issue.
“This is alongside our work to tackle the root causes of homelessness by abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, and as part of our Plan for Change building 1.5mn new homes,” it added.
