More than 4,500 primary school classes worth of homeless children spent Christmas in temporary accommodation, amid concerns of a national homelessness crisis.
Latest figures for England show there were 120,710 dependent homeless children living in temporary accommodation in December, highlighting the urgent need to build more affordable homes to rent and make sure the private rented sector is affordable for people claiming housing-related benefits.
With the number of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions increasing, more Ukrainian arrivals presenting as homeless, depleting social housing stock, and an unaffordable and overly competitive private rented market, councils are growing increasingly concerned, the LGA has warned.
Councils are keen to get on with building homes, with land for more than 2.6 million homes allocated in local plans and nine in 10 planning applications approved.
But the right powers must be provided to incentivise developers to get building, including being able to charge full council tax for every unbuilt development from the point the original planning permission expires.
Cllr David Renard, LGA Housing Spokesperson, said: “Suitable housing must be found for those already homeless, but we must also ensure everything possible is being done to combat the rising cost of living and prevent more people from becoming homeless.
“The best way to improve housing security is to address the unaffordability of housing by giving councils the right powers and investment to build 100,000 new social rent homes a year, reform the Right to Buy scheme so that it is more sustainable, and urgently review local housing allowance rates to ensure that at least a third of the market is affordable for people claiming housing-related benefits.”