Council spending on homelessness triples in eight years

In addition, councils are spending at least £1.75bn annually on supporting nearly 113,000 households in temporary accommodation due to a lack of social housing.

The LGA, which represents councils across England and Wales, called for the next government to ”reset the relationship” between local and national government and give them more housebuilding powers.

It also called for the retention of Right to Buy receipts and exempting new builds from the scheme, abolishing permitted development rights, a ban on Section 21 evictions and an increase in funding for the the Affordable Homes Programme.

Claire Holland, housing spokesperson for the LGA, said: “Homelessness pressures on councils are spiralling as a larger proportion of their budgets is put towards costly temporary accommodation due to a lack of social housing.

“The way to properly resolve the issue is to address the shortage of suitable housing across the country and build up councils’ stock of social housing.

“Councils need to be given the powers and resources to build affordable homes their communities need so they can resume their historic role as a major builder of affordable homes.” 

The Conservative Party and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities were approached for comment on the LGA’s analysis.

Earlier this year, council leaders warned that a surge in spending on temporary accommodation could spell the “end of local government”.

Liberal Democrat councillor Stephen Holt, leader of Eastbourne Borough Council in East Sussex, revealed that 49p in every £1 collected by the council is now being spent on temporary accommodation.

Eastbourne is set to spend nearly £5m on this provision this year, up from £1.4m in 2018-19, he said.

As of December 2023, there were 112,660 homeless households living in temporary accommodation, an increase of 12.1% from the previous year.

In May, an Inside Housing investigation revealed more than 35,000 families with toddlers and babies are living in temporary accommodation.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing and homelessness charity Shelter, said: “The reality of temporary accommodation is all too often a cramped hostel or grotty B&B, where toddlers have no space to play or learn to walk and parents spend sleepless nights desperately worried for their children’s well-being and development.”