A ‘chronic shortage’ of affordable housing is forcing local authorities to spend £2m a day on temporary accommodation for homeless families, council chiefs warn.
The LGA has called on the chancellor to use this week’s Spring Budget to free councils from borrowing limits hampering their ability to build new homes, and to adapt welfare reforms to protect families at risk of homelessness.
The number of affordable homes built in 2015/16 fell by 52% and was the lowest number in 24 years. Just 6,554 social rented homes were built in the same year.
This decline in affordable housing and a squeeze on household income has seen the number of households councils have been forced to place in temporary accommodation increase by 50% since 2010.
London has seen a rise in the number of households living in temporary accommodation — bed and breakfasts, hostels, private-rented places — of 44% and it has gone up by 67% in the rest of England.
Overall, it is estimated 75,000 households are currently in this situation and, according to an analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA), councils have spent £2.6bn housing people over the past three years.
‘With councils continuing to face huge financial pressures, it is unsustainable for them to have to spend £2m a day to house vulnerable people at the sharp end of our housing crisis,’ said LGA chairman Lord Porter.
‘Councils would much rather invest this scarce resource in building new affordable homes and preventing homelessness happening in the first place.
‘A renaissance in housebuilding by councils and a plan to reduce the squeeze on household incomes are both needed if we are to stand any chance of solving our housing crisis, reducing homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation, and sustainably reducing the housing benefit bill.’
‘Communities across the country need a new deal with the chancellor that gives councils the ability to borrow to invest in housing and to keep 100% of the receipts from any homes they sell to replace them and reinvest in building more of the genuinely affordable home they desperately need,’ he added.
