The latest statutory homelessness figures should shame this government. England now has 145,800 statutory homeless households — the highest level since the Homelessness Reduction Act was introduced. Around 109,000 households are stuck in temporary accommodation. Among them are an estimated 140,000 children, a record high. In Scotland, a record 18,092 households are in temporary accommodation, a 9% rise on the previous year.
These are not statistics. They are children waking up in B&Bs and converted office blocks. They are families packed into single rooms with a microwave and a kettle. They are pensioners moved 50 miles from their community. They are working people on full-time wages who simply cannot find a home they can afford. This is the Britain Labour have built in two short years.
The Promises They Made
Cast your mind back to the 2024 manifesto. Labour promised to "end the scandal" of children growing up in temporary accommodation. They pledged 1.5 million new homes. They promised to halve rough sleeping. They told the country that "fixing the foundations" would mean families finally had a stable roof over their heads.
Two years later, the numbers are heading in the opposite direction. Children in temporary accommodation: up. Households without a home: up. Rough sleepers in major cities: up. The promises were headline copy. The reality is the worst statutory homelessness figures in living memory.
How Did It Get This Bad?
Three factors, all within the government's control. First, housebuilding has cratered. NHBC registrations are down. London housebuilding is at a post-WWII low. The planning regime, far from being unlocked, has become more confused. Labour's "new towns" announcement was politically tone-deaf and has stalled in consultation. The 1.5 million-home target is on track to undershoot by hundreds of thousands.
Second, the rental market has been destabilised by the Renters' Rights Act and the buy-to-let tax regime. Landlords are exiting. Rents are climbing. Section 21 eviction notices spiked in the months before the Act took effect, dumping thousands of additional households into homelessness applications.
Third — and this is the bit Labour will not say out loud — net migration continues to run at well over 700,000 a year. Add hundreds of thousands of new arrivals to a stagnant housing stock and the only possible outcome is rising rents, rising waiting lists and rising homelessness. You cannot wish away basic arithmetic.
The Cost To The Taxpayer
Temporary accommodation is also one of the most expensive ways the state can house anyone. Councils across England are paying £100, £200, sometimes £300 a night for B&B rooms that should not be housing families at all. The bill runs into the billions every year. The Local Government Association has warned that temporary accommodation costs are pushing councils to the edge of bankruptcy.
So we have a system in which we pay top dollar to house children in unsuitable conditions, while failing to build the homes that would make this entire bill disappear. It is a textbook example of how government failure compounds — every wrong decision making the next one more expensive.
Children Bear The Cost
The human cost falls hardest on children. Studies have shown that growing up in temporary accommodation damages educational outcomes, mental health and physical health. A childhood spent moving from bedsit to bedsit with no stable school, no stable friendships, no certainty about where you'll sleep next month, is a childhood being stolen. 140,000 children deserve better from this country.
What Reform UK Would Do
Reform UK would treat housing as a national emergency, because it is one. We would unblock planning, prioritise brownfield, and rebuild the small and medium-sized housebuilders Labour's policies have crushed. We would reform the failing temporary accommodation system, demanding value for money from councils and replacing emergency placements with proper social housing. We would tackle the migration numbers directly — because no housing plan in the world can deliver if demand outstrips supply by 700,000 souls a year.
Above all, we would set a clear test: no child in this country should sleep tonight in a B&B because the state failed them. Labour have not even tried to meet that test. Reform UK will.