Councils in England spent £2.93bn on temporary accommodation for homeless households between April 2025 and March 2026, new government figures show – an 88% rise in five years and the equivalent of £8.04m a day.
Nearly two-thirds of that spending, £1.78bn, went on the most expensive forms of private provision: emergency B&Bs and nightly-paid, self-contained accommodation.
B&B spending reached £823m, up 89%, despite families often being confined to one room and sharing kitchens or bathrooms with strangers. Spending on nightly-paid accommodation rose 348% to £955m.
Mairi MacRae, Director of Policy and Campaigns at Shelter, said: ‘We have spent years treating the symptoms of the housing emergency, without addressing its cause. Without enough social homes, we’re throwing money at private companies to provide cramped and often grim temporary accommodation, which gets us no closer to ending homelessness.’
