London boroughs spending over £0.5bn on emergency accommodation
- 24 Jan
Since the last general election London boroughs have spent over half a billion pounds on emergency accommodation for homeless people.
Councils have spent a total of £630m on accommodation consisting of hotels and bed and breakfasts for families found as homeless.
Freedom of information requests revealed in a Press Association reports highlight that Haringey Council had the largest bill. It had spent a total of £197m on emergency accommodation, reports Inside Housing.
Shadow housing minister, Emma Reynolds said that the figures showed the government's "failure to tackle the housing crisis".
"The number of families with children living in bed and breakfasts is at a 10-year high which is causing misery for them but is also costing the taxpayer more with local authorities having to spend more on emergency accommodation because of the government's failure," she said.
Chief executive of Shelter, Campbell Robb, said families in temporary accommodation had "no chance to put down roots or bring up their children in a stable home".
Housing minister Chris Hopkins responded to the figures by saying homelessness was falling. "We have retained a strong homelessness safety net protected in law, supported by £470 million of funding (over and above general grant to local authorities) in the current spending review to prevent and tackle homelessness, rough sleeping and repossessions," he said.
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