Pothole Claims: What Councils Need to Know
Councils face growing pothole claims. Georgia Milton of DWF highlights how strong inspections and AI tools can help balance legal duties, budgets and safety.
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. |
