New Inside Housing investigation reveals more than 35,000 families with toddlers and babies in temporary accommodation

Despite the evidence of the damaging impact living in temporary accommodation has on toddlers and babies, particularly those living in hotels and B&Bs, local authorities are only required to collect and publish data on the number of under 18s in total, with no age breakdown.

Inside Housing filed Freedom of Information requests to every local authority in the UK to find out the number of households in temporary accommodation with a child aged under five, receiving responses from 85%.

The data showed that across England, Scotland and Wales, there has been a 15.6% increase in the number of families with young children in temporary accommodation.

Explore the full data dashboard, with a local authority by local authority breakdown here.

Sylvia Stoianova, deputy director of the National Child Mortality Database, said: “We welcome the publication of Inside Housing’s new data dashboard, which will help to shine a light on families living in temporary accommodation. Our data shows that temporary accommodation has been a contributory factor in the deaths of 55 children between 2019 and 2023, and gathering more and better data on this issue will be key to improving and saving children’s lives.”

A third of local authorities do not collect or refused to provide data on the numbers of households with under fives in temporary accommodation. This includes some that have among the country’s highest levels of temporary accommodation usage, including Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cornwall, Salford, Fife, and Newport.

Extrapolating from the data, Inside Housing has estimated that in England as of December 2023, there were more than 32,350 households in temporary accommodation with children aged under five, and of these 2,350 were in B&B accommodation.

Of these households across England, Scotland and Wales, almost 90% have been there for more than six weeks, and 65% for more than six months. In B&B temporary accommodation, 62% have been there for more than six weeks and 17% more than six months.

In London, 32% of families with young children have been in B&B temporary accommodation for more than six months, compared with 12% in the rest of England.

Ms Neate said: “Nobody should spend the first years of their life homeless, but the government’s inaction on the housing emergency has meant thousands of children under the age of five are stuck in unsuitable temporary accommodation for months or even years. 

“We know living in temporary accommodation has a devastating impact on children of all ages, so at a minimum, the government should publish regular data on the ages of all children homeless in temporary accommodation in England. But collecting data alone isn’t enough. With a general election looming, the government and all political parties must make the choice to end homelessness by investing in social homes – we need 90,000 a year for 10 years.”