10 ways councils are making budgets go further
Discover 10 ways councils are stretching budgets further, from digital transformation and energy efficiency to community partnerships and data-driven decision-making.
Record 172,000 children trapped in temporary housing
16/10/2025 One in five families with children in temporary accommodation (TA) in England have been living there for five or more years, official statistics reveal. |
England’s councils face poorest finances since 2010
16/10/2025 Local authorities in England are set to be poorer by the end of this parliament than they were in 2010, according the Institute for Government (IfG). |
EXCLUSIVE: London boroughs shunning fixed-term tenancies despite housing pressures
15/10/2025 The MJ has found a majority of London councils still providing lifetime tenancies by default despite the capital's burgeoning temporary accommodation costs. |
Councils risk ‘financial collapse’ due to TA costs
13/10/2025 Temporary accommodation spending could create a deficit of over £740m per year in the capital, research has revealed. |
Government unveils £84m homelessness package
09/10/2025 Thousands of people facing homelessness will receive urgent help this winter thanks to a new £84m Government funding package announced on World Homeless Day. |
Hillingdon Council warns of £2m bill from Chagos arrivals
09/10/2025 Hillingdon Council has raised concerns over the financial impact of recent arrivals from the Chagos Islands. |
Homeless deaths hit record high
08/10/2025 A record 1,611 people died while homeless across the UK in 2024, a 9% increase on the previous year, according to a new report from the Museum of Homelessness. |
Exclusive: Cleverly criticises Labour's 'short term fixes'
02/10/2025 The shadow local government secretary has accused Labour of leaving councils with ‘short term fixes', identifying asylum hotels as an area ‘showing strain'. |
London homelessness spending has soared by over 40%
30/09/2025 Spending on homelessness in London has increased by 42% over the last year, analysis has confirmed. |
Councils hit by £266m temporary housing funding shortfall
25/09/2025 Councils face a soaring bill for temporary housing as the funding gap widens by 30% in a year, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned. |
Councils spend record £2.8bn on temporary housing
18/09/2025 The Government has released new figures showing that local councils in England spent £2.8bn on temporary accommodation for homeless households in 2024/25. |
Ombudsman escalates housing complaint against Leicester council
10/09/2025 Ombudsman has written to the Government after Leicester CC refused to fully accept recommendations following a complaint from a domestic abuse survivor. |
Councils prepare for battle over asylum accommodation at military sites
10/09/2025 Councils at the centre of Government plans to increase the use of former military barracks to house asylum seekers have raised concerns over the strategy. |
Asylum seekers to be housed in barracks instead of hotels
08/09/2025 The new home secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to announce plans to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks. |
Council takes legal action against asylum seeker hotels
02/09/2025 West Northamptonshire Council is taking legal action to force three hotels in the county to stop housing asylum seekers. |
Hotels Aren’t the Answer: Rethinking Asylum Support
28/08/2025 Jon Featonby, chief policy officer at Refugee Council, argues that last week’s High Court ruling shows hotels are an unsustainable solution for asylum seekers. |
Council home sell-offs to outpace new builds eightfold
21/08/2025 Local authorities in England are set to lose over eight times as many council homes in 2025/26 as were completed the previous year, think tank has estimated. |
Councils press Home Office for closer work on asylum housing
21/08/2025 Local authority leaders have urged the Home Office to work much more closely with councils when it comes to decisions about asylum accommodation. |
A Local Ruling with National Consequences
20/08/2025 The Epping Forest asylum hotel case exposes a planning problem far bigger than Essex, says Faraz Baber, Chief Operating Officer at Lanpro. |
Farage: Put pressure on councils to follow Epping Forest
20/08/2025 Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has urged people to 'put pressure' on councils to go to court after a High Court ruling. |
Council wins temporary injunction over asylum hotel
19/08/2025 Asylum seekers are to be removed from an Essex hotel that has became the focus of protests this summer. |
Vacant property numbers up despite housing shortage
11/08/2025 The average number of vacant properties per council area has increased in recent years despite the ongoing housing crisis. |
PM says 'lots of housing' exists across councils
22/07/2025 Prime Minister Keir Starmer has claimed there is ‘lots of housing’ that can be used to provide temporary accommodation across local authorities. |
Alarm raised over safeguarding risks in temporary accommodation
07/07/2025 Councils must do more to consider safeguarding risks when housing children in temporary accommodation, says the Children’s Commissioner. |
Response to temporary accommodation report ‘lacking in detail’
18/06/2025 The Government’s response to a report by MPs urging it to publish a strategy for ending homelessness was ‘disappointingly lacking,’ committee chair says. |
Council’s pension scheme could provide over 200 homes
10/06/2025 The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea intends to invest millions from its £2bn pension fund to support vulnerable residents. |
Wealthy boroughs place homeless families in deprived areas
19/05/2025 Wealthier London boroughs are increasingly placing homeless families in more deprived areas, charities warn. |
Council fined £3k for woman’s rent increases
16/05/2025 A council has been ordered to pay a woman more than £3,000 in compensation for charging her unaffordable rent while she was in temporary accommodation. |
Record number of children in temporary accommodation
30/04/2025 A record 165,510 children are now homeless and living in temporary accommodation, according to the latest homelessness figures. |
200k children risk being trapped in temporary accommodation
29/04/2025 Over 200,000 children could be in temporary accommodation by the end of this Parliament if more isn’t done to build social housing, homelessness charity warns. |
London boroughs issue bankruptcy warning over £330m overspend
23/04/2025 Town halls may soon be forced into effectively declaring bankruptcy if more is not done to tackle the £330m homelessness overspend, London Councils warns. |
Temporary accommodation crisis ‘utterly shameful’, MPs say
03/04/2025 Council chiefs have urged the Government to increase the temporary accommodation subsidy as MPs warn homeless children are living in ‘appalling conditions’. |
Ministers in urgent plea for council help with Afghan refugees
11/03/2025 Councils have been urged to support an Afghan resettlement programme under which regions will be handed an allocation from the 6,000-7,000 annual arrivals. |
Shortfall worsens after allocation changes
04/03/2025 Councils are facing an additional £76m shortfall in their temporary accommodation budgets following changes to the allocation of £440m homelessness grant. |
Call to scrap ringfence in homelessness funding
27/02/2025 The Local Government Association (LGA) has urged the Government to scrap a new ringfence within the homelessness prevention grant. |
Rising number of child deaths linked to temporary housing
28/01/2025 An estimated 80 children died in temporary accommodation in the year up to 30 September 2024, according to new research. |
The Temporary Accommodation Crisis: A call for urgent solutions
08/01/2025 Nathalie Meunier, sales director at offsite manufacturer Premier Modular, argues modular construction offers a solution to the temporary accommodation crisis. |
State will operate 'more like a start-up'
10/12/2024 The launch of a £100m fund to pioneer public sector reform and deliver the Government's Plan for Change will see the state operate ‘more like a start-up', a minister has pledged. |
Child was at ‘constant risk of injury’ in unsafe temporary accommodation
05/12/2024 A family with a disabled child had to live in an unsafe flat for a year and a half longer than they should have, an investigation has found. |
Council apologises after belongings of deceased tenant binned
26/11/2024 Brighton & Hove City Council has apologised after the belongings of a 29-year-old man found dead in temporary accommodation were binned by contractors. |
Inquiry into temporary accommodation launched
31/10/2024 A select committee has launched an inquiry into how living in temporary accommodation impacts children and families, and the pressure it puts on local authority finances. |
