Child homelessness has doubled since 2013 but government isn’t helping, if the Local Government Association is to be believed.
When Vox Political first started recording the number of children who were without homes (using figures from Shelter), an enormous 80,000 of them had nowhere to live.
I am devastated to report that this number has now doubled, with nearly 160,000 now homeless and living in temporary accommodation.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Here‘s Shelter:
New government statutory homelessness figures released today reveal yet another shocking record, with 159,380 children now homeless and living in temporary accommodation – a 15% increase in a year and the highest figure since records began in 2004.
The number of households living in temporary accommodation has also hit another record 123,100, up 16% on last year.
The figures also show that there are 9,550 families with children stuck in B&Bs and hostels.
Families are put in temporary accommodation by local councils, but Shelter has discouraging information about the situation there:
The data reflects the increasing pressure councils are facing to rehouse households who become homeless, as rents continue to skyrocket and genuinely affordable social homes are becoming increasingly scarce. One in three households (32% or almost 39,000) in temporary accommodation are now placed out of area – up by 39% from a year ago. More and more families are being placed in accommodation miles away from their support networks, jobs and children’s schools.
Government rules say families should only be put in B&B accommodation as a last resort and only for a maximum of six weeks. B&Bs and hostels are considered some of the worst type of temporary accommodation as families are often cramped into one room, forced to share kitchens and bathrooms with strangers and where children have no space to play and are unable to have friends over. Sadly, this accommodation is far from temporary, with separate government data showing one in five families (21%) in B&Bs and hostels have been there for over a year.
Councils are expected to house homeless people in temporary accommodation – paying the up-front costs and then claiming the money back from central government.
But the amount they can claim back has been frozen since a Tory decision to do so in 2011. The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, says this has cost its members £737.3 million as they have to cover the difference between what central government makes available and the actual cost as rents have increased hugely.
According to the BBC,
The LGA says that money would otherwise have been spent on areas such as adult social care, children’s services and preventing homelessness.
Sadly, the government seems unwilling to play its part in supporting homeless families in this way.
Don’t get me wrong – Rachel Reeves committed £230 million to solving homelessness in her October Budget. It’s just a shame that this falls short of the amount Shelter said was needed by more than half a billion pounds.
The BBC’s figures are even worse, stating that in 2022-23, £1.75 billion was spent by councils to fund temporary accommodation. But I notice that it does not state how much was covered by frozen central government funding.
The government is keen to claim that it is building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, in an attempt to tackle the housing crisis – but there is controversy over whether it is possible to build that number of dwellings so quickly, whether they are slated to go in the right places, and whether there will be enough local infrastructure to support new households coming to live in them.
So it seems that, while different people are living it up in Downing Street this year, for increasing numbers of us without a home it’s the same sad Christmas story.
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Child homelessness has doubled since 2013 but government isn’t helping
Child homelessness has doubled since 2013 but government isn’t helping, if the Local Government Association is to be believed.
When Vox Political first started recording the number of children who were without homes (using figures from Shelter), an enormous 80,000 of them had nowhere to live.
I am devastated to report that this number has now doubled, with nearly 160,000 now homeless and living in temporary accommodation.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Here‘s Shelter:
Families are put in temporary accommodation by local councils, but Shelter has discouraging information about the situation there:
Councils are expected to house homeless people in temporary accommodation – paying the up-front costs and then claiming the money back from central government.
But the amount they can claim back has been frozen since a Tory decision to do so in 2011. The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, says this has cost its members £737.3 million as they have to cover the difference between what central government makes available and the actual cost as rents have increased hugely.
According to the BBC,
Sadly, the government seems unwilling to play its part in supporting homeless families in this way.
Don’t get me wrong – Rachel Reeves committed £230 million to solving homelessness in her October Budget. It’s just a shame that this falls short of the amount Shelter said was needed by more than half a billion pounds.
The BBC’s figures are even worse, stating that in 2022-23, £1.75 billion was spent by councils to fund temporary accommodation. But I notice that it does not state how much was covered by frozen central government funding.
The government is keen to claim that it is building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, in an attempt to tackle the housing crisis – but there is controversy over whether it is possible to build that number of dwellings so quickly, whether they are slated to go in the right places, and whether there will be enough local infrastructure to support new households coming to live in them.
So it seems that, while different people are living it up in Downing Street this year, for increasing numbers of us without a home it’s the same sad Christmas story.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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