More than 123,000 households are now living in temporary accommodation, including 159,380 children, new statistics show

Liam Geraghty

Russ and Selma lived in their flat for 13 years, then they were issued with a section 21 notice, and were placed into a Travelodge by their local council. They were there for 10 and a half months, also with their teenage daughter and dog, but have just been offered a new flat. Image: Jeff Hubbard / Centre for Homelessness Impact

England’s temporary accommodation crisis has continued to accelerate, official figures show, as the government has been urged to get to grips with surging homelessness.

Government figures show 123,100 households were living in temporary accommodation by the end of June this year – 5% higher than the previous quarter and a staggering 16.3% up on numbers recorded a year earlier.

The number of homeless households heading into temporary accommodation has continued to surge in the last year with some local authorities warning that the issue is driving them to bankruptcy.

An additional 17,000 households have been moved into temporary housing over the last year while the number of children in temporary accommodation has risen by more than 20,000 over the same period to 159,380. This marks a record high.

Shelter’s analysis revealed that the number of households placed in temporary accommodation outside their area has grown by 39% in a year and now means one in three households (32% or almost 39,000) are living away from where they used to call home.

Lord John Bird, Big Issue founder and crossbench peer, said the Labour government must act fast to prevent more people falling into homelessness.

Yet another alarming rise in homelessness in our country. These numbers on temporary accommodation – up 16.3% on last year alone – make for grim reading. This is a crisis our new government must get to grips with, urgently. We can’t afford to wait for better economic times to roll over the hill.

We must do all we can to deal with the crisis of homelessness and rough sleeping, but we have also to start reducing the number of people falling into it. The billion upon billion spent on people in poverty only maintains them in poverty; brings them relief, but not exit. 

“The crisis occupies all our time, resource and energy. But if we don’t likewise turn our attentions to ‘turning off the tap’, then we will always be handling the crisis.”