The social sector faces unprecedented level of challenges to deliver the Government’s tough housing agenda
Record levels of homelessness are pushing many councils’ revenue budgets to breaking point as the housing system buckles under the strain of unprecedented demand for its services.
Help has now been promised and billions of pounds are to be invested by the Government, but the solutions will inevitably take time to be delivered and it could be several years before we see significant inroads being made.
More than 350,000 people are currently staying in unsuitable and very costly temporary accommodation, such as overcrowded and dirty B&Bs. Meanwhile there are over 1.3 million households across the country stuck on local authority waiting lists for the offer of a tenancy on a social rented home, which promises both lower rents and greater security than the private rented sector.
In an effort to make a real change to the lives of a significant number of these people the Government has recently issued two big policy changes – a new homelessness strategy designed to end the use of B&Bs and a new investment plan to build at least 280,000 new social and affordable homes over the next five years.
Ending the use of B&Bs
The Government launched its long-awaited National Plan to End Homelessness, a strategy promised in its election manifesto and supported by £3.5bn of new funding.
Its main objectives are to:
- Halve the number of people sleeping rough long term
- End the unlawful use of B&Bs for families
- Prevent “thousands” more households from becoming homeless in the first place.
In a bid to prevent more households from becoming homeless, the Government will bring forward legislation for a new ‘duty to collaborate’ that will require public bodies to work together to prevent homelessness, particularly where it is linked to people being discharged from prisons, social care and hospitals. Homelessness among these groups has increased by a staggering 22% in the last year.
There are many thousands of children staying long-term in B&Bs right now even though the existing law already sets a six-week limit on the length of their stays. In addition
to the new prevention measures, the strategy will boost the supply of “good-quality” temporary homes, backed by £950m through the fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund.
The Government also said it will work to improve the “quality and suitability” of temporary accommodation by enforcing “strong protections” against poor housing conditions, including out-of-area placements.
The strategy includes plans for a National Workforce Programme to equip frontline teams with essential training and expert advice. The Government said progress will be tracked through national reports, which will be overseen by the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to ensure “transparency, accountability and momentum”.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: “Through our new strategy, we can build a future where homelessness is rare, brief and not repeated. With record investment, new duties on public services and a relentless focus on accountability, we will turn ambition into reality.”
Doubling new house completions
For the homelessness strategy to work effectively, the supply of new social and affordable homes needs to increase significantly and this is where a £27bn investment by Homes England should assist by providing the funds and framework for 280,000 new homes to be built by 2030. Steve Reed described this as the “biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation”.
Homes England is the Government’s housing and regeneration agency. Its chair Pat Ritchie, said “Our early analysis suggests that over the next five years we will support the delivery of approximately 280,000 new homes and unlock land that is capable of supporting almost 400,000 homes.
“We estimate that agency-supported gross housing completions will almost double by the end of this parliament, from around 40,000 completions per year in 2025-26 to more than 80,000 completions per year by 2029-30.”
She added: “Through partnership and a deep understanding of local needs, we can create a much-needed step change in the delivery of new homes, including social housing, and affordable communities – directly addressing the needs of current and future generations and ensuring everyone can have a safe place to live and thrive.”
The plan puts collaboration with mayors, local leaders and partners at its heart, to deliver high-quality, safe and sustainable homes in thriving, inclusive communities and contribute towards the Government’s overall ambition to build 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament.
The agency is restructuring itself to deliver a stronger regional focus and in early 2026 it is due to publish plans for the launch of a National Housing Bank. The new Strategic Plan responds to what house builders and housing organisations have long called for – more tailored support, more flexibility, longer-term funding and the ability to support delivery at scale.
High levels of need
The need for both initiatives was demonstrated by fresh research from Shelter which revealed that 382,618 people in England, including 175,025 children are without a home this winter, an increase of 8% in the past year and equivalent to one in every 153 people now experiencing homelessness. This reflects sharp rises in the number of people sleeping rough and record numbers of families with children stuck in temporary accommodation.
The charity’s shocking figures reveal that:
- 350,480 people are homeless and living in temporary accommodation (TA), most of whom are families with children. This is the highest number of people in TA since records began
- At least 4,667 people are sleeping rough on any given night – a 20% increase in one year
- An estimated 16,294 additional single people are staying in hostels or other homeless accommodation
- At least 4,031 people are in accommodation provided by social services.
According to Shelter, the dire shortage of social homes, unaffordable private rents and the freeze on housing benefit are pushing more people into homelessness and trapping them there.
Temporary accommodation is only ever intended for emergency, short-term use (with a maximum stay of just six weeks for families with children), but the lack of alternative options means people are increasingly stuck in it for much longer. The charity’s research shows households spend an average of nearly three years in temporary accommodation while attempting to access a stable home.
Conditions in temporary accommodation are often terrible with entire families crammed into one room in a rundown B&B, having to share beds, with inadequate or non-existent cooking and laundry facilities. Others may be placed in grotty bedsits that are miles away from their children’s school, their work, and crucial support networks – completely destabilising their lives. For those not entitled to temporary accommodation, sofa-surfing, a bed in a night shelter or sleeping rough may be their only option.
A countrywide problem
While over half of the people who are homeless in England live in London, Shelter’s data reveals that the housing emergency is not limited to the capital alone, with sharp rises in homelessness recorded across much of the country. In the North West, the number of people recorded as homeless has grown by 15% in the last year, and in Yorkshire and the Humber and the West Midlands it has risen by 11%.
In east London, Newham is the local authority with the highest rate of homelessness in the country with one in 18 people recorded as being homeless. Outside of London, Slough is the worst affected local authority, with one in 43 people homeless, followed by Hastings with one in 60 homeless and Manchester and Birmingham where one in every 61 people are homeless.
Until more genuinely affordable social housing is built, one of the only ways people can escape homelessness is if they are able to afford private rents. But this is almost impossible when housing benefit is frozen and so far out of sync with private rents. Shelter is urging the Government to help people who are homeless by unfreezing housing benefit so that it covers at least the bottom third of private rents.
Commenting on the figures Sarah Elliott, chief executive officer at Shelter, said: “It’s unthinkable that as winter sets in, more than 382,000 people are without a safe place to call home.
“Every day at Shelter we hear from parents who are terrified of waiting out another winter in appalling temporary accommodation. Cut off from family and friends in a bleak emergency B&B that’s miles away, they watch as their children’s breath hangs in the air and mould climbs the walls.
“We urge the Government to help the families who are homeless right now by ending the freeze on housing benefit. This would immediately lift thousands of children out of temporary accommodation and into a home. While we campaign for change, our frontline services will continue providing direct support to those facing homelessness this winter and beyond.”
The Government resisted the calls to lift the cap on housing benefit levels in the most recent Budget. But failing to take this sort of action could stymie the new homelessness plan
and this decision might be revisited, just like the child benefit cap was lifted after a long campaign by lobbyists and growing numbers of backbench MPs. The Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping will be monitoring the impact of the new policies, alongside other influential politicians like Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. We can be sure they will raise their concerns in public if they do not see meaningful change and a change in both waiting lists and the numbers in temporary accommodation.