England’s Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary accommodation

On 3 April the cross-party Housing, Communities and Local Government committee published its report on "England’s Homeless Children: The Crisis in Temporary Accommodation", following an inquiry which CIH submitted evidence to.

The report, which follows an earlier inquiry on the costs of homelessness by the Public Accounts Committee and a report from the Children’s Commissioner, draws on evidence which addresses the escalating issue of families living in ‘temporary’ housing, highlighting the significant detrimental effects on children and the huge financial strain on local authorities. Currently, over 164,000 homeless children are living in temporary accommodation across England—the highest number on record.

The committee concludes that many temporary accommodation placements are unsuitable for families, with hazards such as severe damp and mould, excessive cold, and pest infestations. Overcrowding is prevalent, forcing older children to share beds with parents or siblings, and limiting space for infants to crawl or walk. Tragically, in the past five years, temporary accommodation has been a contributing factor in the deaths of at least 74 children, including 58 infants under the age of one.

Our evidence to the committee emphasised the need for increased social housing and investment in social security to address this crisis. For example, our 2021 research with the Centre for Homelessness Impact showed that a modest annual increase of 10,000 social rented homes could be largely financed by direct savings in temporary accommodation costs and reductions in housing benefit/universal credit payments that would otherwise support higher-cost private rentals. In short, a household is far more expensive to support once they are homeless, compared with subsidising their income.

The committee calls on the government to take a number of actions to address the challenges outlined, including:

• Introduce mandatory local authority inspections before housing is first used as temporary accommodation, with additional funding provided under the new burdens doctrine to ensure local authorities can carry out and report on these inspections
• Update the Code of Guidance to clearly demonstrate local authorities’ duty to mitigate safeguarding risks when making decisions on placements for families with children, working with local authorities to bring an end to placements of families in temporary accommodation with kitchens or bathrooms shared with single adults housed in the same building.
• Issue guidance to discourage local authorities from acquiring properties outside of their authority boundaries to use as temporary accommodation. Where not possible, the local authority must notify prospective host local authorities before it purchases any properties out-of-area. The Government should also consult on introducing a limit on the distance of all out-of-area placements
• Introduce a new requirement for local authorities to notify a host council before it makes an out-of-area placement
• Establish a formal notification system, so that a child’s school and GP are alerted when they move into TA
• Take a more holistic approach to understanding the drivers of homelessness in England and review data collection to improve understanding of how temporary accommodation impacts children’s health and education
• Use the Interministerial Group on homelessness as an opportunity to evaluate the link between welfare reforms and homelessness.

We endorse the committee’s report. In our submission to the forthcoming Spending Review we also called on the government to:

• Restore local housing allowance (LHA) rates to cover at least the lowest 30 per cent of housing
• Remove the benefit cap and the two-child benefit limit to help families sustain tenancies
• End the 'no recourse to public funds' policy which leaves affected families vulnerable and more likely to experience severe forms of homelessness.

We’ll be discussing some of this further at our next CIH member homelessness policy network meeting on 9 April. To attend please email policyandpractice@cih.org.