28 COMMENT
IMAGINATION & EFFORT NEEDED
Patrick Mooney
Patrick Mooney, housing consultant and news editor of Housing Management & Maintenance magazine, looks at the crisis around temporary accommodation costs, and how addressing this requires investment in aff ordable housing, reforms, and collaboration across government, councils, and housing associations.
T
he scale of the new Government’s housing challenge has been revealed in recent statistical releases showing a record number of homeless households and staggering amounts of money being spent on temporary accommodation by local councils. The new administration has announced its intention to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029 to sort out the supply and affordability crisis, but there are a whole host of other actions that need to be taken by other organisations and bodies. This is not a problem that the Government alone can solve. For instance Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham has committed his authority to pursuing a ‘Housing First’ scheme to tackle rough sleeping in the city. This innovative scheme was fi rst introduced in inland in 2008 and it gives homes to people when they need them, without any conditions attached. In Finland it has brought down homelessness by 70% as well as eradicating poverty-based homelessness completely. After a successful pilot of a Housing First scheme in Greater Manchester, which has supported 430 people with complex experiences of homelessness, Burnham is bidding for Government funding to extend it beyond its current deadline of March 2025. In an equally dramatic intervention, England’s 11 million renters are set to get more security from a new Bill to ban “no- fault” evictions. The Government has brought forward a strengthened version of its Renters’ Rights Bill, including an outright ban on tenants being kicked out of their home for no reason by landlords using a Section 21 notice. similar proposal was put on indefi nite hold by the previous government because of the general election being called in July. But faced with the shocking fi gures on homelessness, evictions and the rising cost of temporary accommodation, Ministers in different departments have decided to take action.
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A STATISTICAL HEADACHE he statutory homelessness fi gures, which cover the period January to March 2024, have revealed a shocking situation: • The number of children who are homeless and living in temporary accommodation with their families in England has rocketed to 151,630 – an increase of 15% in a year and the highest fi gure since records began 20 years ago in 2004;
• The number of homeless families living in emergency accommodation such as B&Bs and hostels has reached 8,860 – a rise of 29% in a year. This type of emergency accommodation is notoriously overcrowded, expensive and unsuitable;
• Overall there are now a record 117,450 homeless households living in temporary accommodation in England – the highest fi gure ever and up in a year and
• The loss of a private tenancy remains the leading trigger of homelessness accounting for more than one in four households found to be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
Meanwhile, the spending on temporary accommodation for homeless households has doubled to .bn in the last fi ve years. he latest overnment fi gures show the following: • Councils spent a combined total of £2.3 billion on temporary accommodation between April 2023 and March 2024;
• This has increased by 29% in the last year and has almost doubled (a 97% increase) in the last fi ve years and
• More than one third of the total – £780 million – was spent on emergency B&Bs and hostels, which are often considered the worst type of temporary accommodation where families can be crammed into one room, forced to share beds and lack basic cooking facilities.
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