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Spending on temporary accommodation by local authorities increased to £1.2bn last year, with the vast majority being paid to private landlords, letting agents or companies.
Latest data published by the government shows that in 2019/20, councils spent £1.19bn on temporary accommodation, up 9% from the amount spent last year and up 55% from 2014/15.
Of the total spent in England last year, 87% went to private landlords, letting agents or companies, a 66% increase on the amount paid to private providers in 2014/15.
Spending on emergency B&B accommodation has increased by 73% since 2014/15. In 2019/20, 38% of the money paid to private providers was spent on this type of accommodation.
This is despite legislation that limits the use of B&B accommodation for families or pregnant women.
The data follows an investigation earlier this year by Shelter and the BBC’s Panorama that revealed the private providers receiving the most public money to provide temporary accommodation for homeless people.
It found that 18 of the 25 temporary accommodation providers that received the most public money last year were private letting agents.
At the end of March this year, there were 93,000 households living in temporary accommodation, the highest number in 14 years.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “It is outrageous that almost £1.2bn a year is spent on often shoddy and expensive temporary accommodation because of the lack of social homes.
“It’s a false economy for taxpayers’ money to be used to pay private landlords for grotty emergency B&Bs, which can be so terrible to live in that families end up deeply traumatised.
“The decades of failure to build social homes means too many people on lower incomes are stuck in unstable private rentals – increasing their chances of becoming homeless.
“This cycle of destitution persists when those who lose their homes turn to the council for help, because councils have so little social housing left, they can’t alleviate their homelessness for good.”
A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Everybody should have somewhere safe to live, and temporary accommodation plays a role in ensuring people are getting the help they need. We’re committed to transforming the lives of some of the most vulnerable in society and this year alone we’re spending over £700 million in total to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.
“We are also investing £12.2bn through the Affordable Homes Programme - the highest single funding commitment to affordable housing in a decade. We will deliver a wide range of affordable homes of different tenures all across the country.”
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