Housing crisis: Over 4,500 classrooms’-worth of children stuck in temporary accommodation over summer holidays

The number of children spending the summer holidays in temporary accommodation would fill more than 4,500 classrooms, underlining the need to build more social housing, say councils.

As pupils have broken up from school, 119,830 children in England will be living in temporary accommodation during the end-of-year break, according to latest government figures.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils, wants to work with government on a long-term plan to tackle homelessness, so everyone has a safe and secure permanent home, as part of the recovery from coronavirus.

It is calling on the Government to let councils build back locally, by giving them the powers and resources to deliver a social housing building programme of 100,000 new homes a year, to help address the housing shortage.

With previous LGA analysis showing council housing waiting lists could double as a result of the pandemic, giving councils these new powers would help the Government to meet a third of its annual housing target and reduce homelessness.

The LGA is calling for further reform of the Right to Buy scheme so that councils can retain 100 per cent of receipts, have flexibility to combine Right to Buy receipts with other government grants and be able to set the size of discounts locally.

It says by doing this councils could get building much-needed homes more quickly.

There are 1,350 households with children in bed and breakfasts this summer.

The LGA earlier this month revealed that the rising demand for homelessness support was forcing councils to spend over five times as much on bed and breakfast accommodation as they were 10 years ago.

Latest figures show that councils in England spent £142 million placing homeless households in bed and breakfasts in 2019/20, compared with £26.7 million in 2010/11 – a 430 per cent increase.

Cllr Darren Rodwell, LGA housing spokesperson, said:

“Having a safe, secure, permanent home is the bedrock of any child getting the very best start in life, so it is tragic that thousands of children face having to spend their summer holidays living in temporary accommodation.

“This is a sad reflection of the lack of housing in this country and demonstrates the urgent need to build more social homes.

“This won’t happen overnight, but it is vital that councils, working with government, are given the powers to get building homes again at a scale that drastically reduces homelessness, as we look to build back the nation following the pandemic.”

Kindly shared by Local Government Association

Main photo courtesy of Pixabay