Councils to call for ‘urgent’ government action to tackle temporary accommodation crisis

The letter, whose signatories include Sam Chapman-Allen, chair of DCN and leader of Breckland Council, and Stephen Holt, leader of Lewes and Eastbourne Councils, says that the level of concern was demonstrated when 158 councils attended a summit on the issue.

The meeting, which took place on 31 October, was organised by the DCN and Eastbourne Borough Council to address the social and financial crisis created by the unprecedented demand for temporary accommodation.

According to data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, published last month, 104,510 households were in temporary accommodation in England on 31 March, up 10 per cent from the same period last year.

Elsewhere, Social Housing’s own analysis of the past four years’ worth of government data, found that this number has grown by almost a third over the period. 

Meanwhile, an analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA), which represent councils across England, revealed that the circa 104,000 households figure was the highest since records began in 1998, after the number rose  89 per cent in the last decade. The LGA said the record figure of temporary accommodation cost councils at least £1.74bn in 2022-23.

Earlier in October, the LGA warned in its Autumn Statement submission to the chancellor that councils in England faced a funding gap of £4bn over the next two years, due to inflationary pressures on their budgets.

The scale of the problem facing councils was also highlighted in a recent DCN survey in which 96 per cent of its members reported a rise in the use of temporary accommodation, while four-fifths described the increase as “significant”. 

“The ensuing increase in costs is a critical risk to the financial sustainability of many local authorities and we urge you to act swiftly to ensure we can continue our vital work,” the DCN will say in its letter. “The pressure is particularly acute for district councils because housing costs constitute a far bigger proportion of our overall expenditure. 

“Without urgent intervention, the existence of our safety net is under threat. The danger is that we have no option but to start withdrawing services which currently help so many families to avoid hitting crisis point.

“There will also be a knock-on impact on other cherished council services, which councils could also have to scale back, and on other parts of the public sector – such as the NHS – which will be left to pick up the pieces.”

The DCN will add that councils and partner organisations in health, policing and education, as well as the voluntary sector, have had “considerable success” in recent years in moving the whole local system towards preventing homelessness.

However, the supply of permanent, affordable housing has fallen in many places while the impact of the rising cost of living is making housing too costly for many people, the letter states.

It adds that some areas also experience added pressure due to the placement of asylum seekers in local hotels and other temporary accommodation. 

The DCN believes there is a way forward and is urgently calling on the government to raise Local Housing Allowance rates to a level that will cover at least 30 per cent of local market rent and commit to annual uprating. 

It is also urging the government to:

• Provide £100m additional funding for Discretionary Housing Payments in 2023-24 and an additional £200m in 2024-25
• Provide a £150m top-up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant for 2024-25
• Review the cap for housing benefit subsidy rate for local authority homelessness placements
• Develop policy to stimulate retention and supply in the private rented sector
• Give councils the long-term funding, flexibility and certainty needed to increase the supply of social housing

“We firmly believe that action on these issues will ensure that district councils can continue to provide an effective homelessness safety net,” the DCN will say in its letter.

“We also believe that these measures will be cost effective by ensuring homelessness is prevented, reducing public expenditure in future. The human cost of homelessness is immense. With your help we can prevent it worsening.”

A government spokesperson said: “Local authorities have seen an increase in core spending power of up to £5.1bn or 9.4 per cent in cash terms on 2022-23, with almost £60bn available for local government in England.

“We are committed to reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing homelessness before it occurs in the first place, which is why we are providing councils with £1bn through the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years.

“We are also delivering a fairer private rented sector for tenants and landlords through the Renters’ Reform Bill which includes abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.”