Labour highlights rise in number of families ‘illegally housed’ in UK
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Version 0 of 1. Nearly 90,000 children will be forced to spend Christmas in emergency temporary accommodation as the costs of the housing crisis escalate to £2.8bn over the course of this parliament, Labour has claimed. Shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds said that new figures, which show a dramatic increase in the number of families with children “illegally housed” in bed and breakfast accommodation, highlight the failure of the government to deal with the housing crisis. “It is a tragedy that tens of thousands of families will be spending their Christmas in emergency accommodation but it is also costing the taxpayer more with local authorities set to spend billions on emergency accommodation over this parliament because of the government’s failure,” Reynolds said. Reynolds spoke out after homelessness statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government showed that 60,940 families will be spending Christmas in emergency temporary accommodation. This includes 87,420 children and marks an increase of 20% since 2010. The figures also show a rise in bed and breakfast accommodation that is deemed unsuitable for long stays. There has been a near fourfold increase since 2010 in the number of families with children “illegally housed” in this accommodation for more than six weeks – from 140 to 500. There has also been a near trebling since 2010 – from 5,880 to 15,260 – in the number of families forced to live in temporary accommodation outside their local area. Labour said that local authority statistics drawn from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy suggest that an average of £552m a year has been spent since 2010 on emergency temporary accommodation. Labour uses this average figure to estimate the costs over the current five-year parliament to be £2.8bn. Reynolds said the government bore responsibility for the crisis because it had presided over the lowest levels of housebuilding in peacetime since the 1920s while the number of homes built for social rent was at the lowest level in over two decades. Reynolds said: “Rising housing costs and low pay have made it more and more difficult for people to stay in their family home, and the government’s failure to build the affordable homes we need and policies like the bedroom tax have made things worse. “Labour is committed to tackling this crisis by building more homes, increasing the national minimum wage, getting a fairer deal for private renters and abolishing the unfair bedroom tax.” Housing minister Kris Hopkins said: “This government has increased spending to prevent homelessness, making over £500m available to help the most vulnerable in society and has kept strong protections to guard families against the threat of homelessness. “Councils have a responsibility to move homeless households into settled accommodation as quickly as possible and statistics released recently show a significant fall in the number of families with children in bed and breakfast accommodation for longer than six weeks.” |