Homelessness in London has been described as “nothing less than an emergency” as new figures found that rough sleeping has more than doubled in ten years while boroughs are spending £4m every day on housing homeless people.
A report published by the cross-party London Councils group titled London’s Homelessness Emergency, found that homelessness in the capital is now at its “highest-ever level”, with at least one in 50 Londoners experiencing homelessness.
With the capital described as the “epicentre of a national crisis”, the report estimated that more than 183,000 Londoners are homeless and living in temporary accommodation, including 90,000 children.
London Councils estimated that this number is equivalent to one in every 21 children in the capital, meaning on average “there is at least one homeless child in every London classroom”.
As well as an increase in the number of people in temporary accommodation – which has been described in other reports as “unsafe” and having issues including damp, mould and bed bugs – rough sleeping has also grown “significantly” in the last ten years, rising by 58% since 2014.
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The London Councils report claimed that as well as this crisis having a “devastating impact on individuals and families”, it is also costing councils, with the report finding that London boroughs collectively spent £114m every month, or £4m daily, on temporary accommodation in the 2023-24 financial year.
This spending on temporary accommodation by London boroughs represented a jump of 68% in one year.
The report explained that there is a shortage of “suitable” accommodation, which means London boroughs are increasingly reliant on placing homeless families in B&Bs, which can come at high costs for local authorities. The study found that over the past two years, there has been a 622% increase in families placed in B&Bs by London boroughs.
London Councils have warned that these costs could push boroughs in the capital towards “effective bankruptcy”, with London boroughs reportedly forecast to overspend on their original homelessness budget plans by £250m this year.
London Councils made several recommendations for national policy action within its report, including making the increase in Local Housing Allowance rates a permanent measure. It also suggested that the Homelessness Prevention Grant funding should be doubled due to the “current level of overspend”.
Homelessness charity St Mungo’s explained that reliance on temporary accommodation is a “sticking plaster”, and more needs to be done in order to increase the amount of social housing in the UK.
