Council spending on emergency accommodation tops £2.2bn

Crisis calls on the Westminster government to provide financial support to councils as spending increases by 29% in one year

Local authorities in England are spending a record £2.29bn a year on providing emergency temporary accommodation to homeless households, according to new provisional government figures released today (Thursday 29th August).

The figures also show:

• Councils spent £2.29bn on temporary accommodation from April 2023 to March 2024.
• The amount spent on temporary accommodation has increased by 29% from £1.77bn the previous year.
• Half of this total spend (£1.34bn) was on nightly paid accommodation and bed and breakfasts – the least suitable form of temporary accommodation. The amount spent on this form of accommodation has increased by 55% on the previous year.

These figures come as data released earlier this month showed that a record 117,450 households were being forced to live in temporary accommodation as of March 2024, a 12% increase on the previous year.

The increasing reliance on temporary accommodation, including the most unsuitable and expensive forms such as B&Bs and nightly paid accommodation, underscores the chronic shortage of social housing.

Ahead of the Autumn Budget, Crisis is calling on the Westminster government to ensure councils receive the funding they need to meet this ongoing problem, as well as investing in housing benefit so that people can find and keep a home. In the longer term, the government will need to follow through on its ambition to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. The government has stated it will provide further details of funding for affordable and social housing delivery in the upcoming budget.

Responding to the figures, Matt Downie, Crisis Chief Executive, said: “It is unfathomable that councils are spending billions on keeping households homeless in often damp and mouldy temporary accommodation instead of on new homes, all because of a decades-long failure to build the social housing we need.

“What can’t be quantified is the human cost of homelessness. It strips people of their dignity, it damages their health, and traps people in a spiral of anxiety and insecurity. We cannot let this continue.

“To help councils plug this financial blackhole and turn the tide on homelessness, it’s critical the new Westminster government takes a different approach and looks at more sustainable solutions. In the short term, this means ensuring the Autumn Budget includes more funding for councils and making sure housing benefit covers the cheapest third of rents. But to truly fix the foundations of this country, the government must remain focused on its plans to build a generation of affordable and social housing and ensure people who are homeless can access them. Only by doing this can we create a future where everyone can thrive.”

-Ends-

Notes to Editor

Local authority revenue expenditure and financing England: 2023 to 2024 individual local authority data - outturn

This is a first release of this data, based on complete returns from 368 of the 411 local authorities in England. England totals have been estimated by also drawing on grant allocation data, where known, or the proportions within the previous year's data for which the missing 43 authorities accounted. A final release will be published later this year.