Crisis responds to new data showing local authorities spending nearly £1.6bn on temporary accommodation in a year

Today (8th December), new government data shows that in England in the last financial year nearly £1.6 billion was spent housing people in temporary accommodation, including rooms in B&Bs and hotels.

This included a huge proportion spent on unsuitable accommodation, with over £365 million being spent on bed and breakfast accommodation alone.

This comes as Crisis and Heriot-Watt University's 2022 Homelessness Monitor for Great Britain, published this week, shows proportionally significantly more government expenditure on homelessness in England goes on temporary accommodation rather than prevention or support services.

Matt Downie, Chief Executive at Crisis, said: “Too many people are being forced to live in limbo, unable to start rebuilding their lives for each day that they spend in temporary accommodation.

“With the cost of living crisis pushing more and more households into poverty, those stuck in temporary accommodation will be finding it unimaginably tough to get by this winter. We’ve heard from families spending months in a single room and from people with no cooking facilities or washing machine, forcing them to spend even more money to simply get by.

“We must overhaul the current approach to tackling homelessness in England which relies too heavily on temporary solutions. Having a roof over your head for a night, a week, or even a few months is not the same as having a home. Staggering sums of money are spent on half measures that don’t solve the underlying problem. Our recent Homelessness Monitor for Great Britain has demonstrated clearly that spending more on prevention and investing in housing stock also helps drive down homelessness.

“The government must urgently start building more genuinely affordable homes– not watering down affordable housing targets as they did this week. Only then will the thousands of people trapped in temporary accommodation be able to enjoy the safety and security of a real home.”