The Staggering Cost Of Temporary Accommodation

Councils across the UK spent £300 million in three years on placing homeless people in hotels and B&Bs, Freedom of Information figures reveal.

Brent in northwest London spent £39 million in three years on temporary accommodation for homeless people, according to FOI responses received by the Evening Standard. The figures, which relate to the last three financial years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, lay bare the shocking extent of homelessness across the UK.

The cost of putting homeless people into hotels, B&Bs and other temporary accommodation has risen by £20 million in three years and totalling £110m in the last financial year, according to the FOI figures. Much of the accommodation was for single people but there were also a staggering 7,502 families with children being put in temporary accommodation in the last financial year – almost double the number in 2015-16, of 4,002.

Brent council spent the most on temporary accommodation for the homeless.

The council said the £39 million figure included its entire spend on temporary accommodation for homeless people, including putting people up in studio flats, as well as single room B&Bs with shared amenities. Brent had the second highest number of homeless people and families to look after in the country at 3,146. But the council spent more than double the London Borough of Redbridge, which had 6,864.

But some major towns and cities with difficulty in tackling homelessness reported they had not spent a penny on temporary accommodation.

Leeds, Newcastle, Stevenage and Mansfield were among 10 councils who revealed they had adequate facilities to house people and they did not place a single person in a hotel or B&B.

Mansfield District Council, in Nottinghamshire, said it “prides itself on not having to use B&B accommodation” at all, and instead charges families £97.55 a week to house occupants in one of its sheltered complexes, bedsits, flats and family homes. The average market rent in Mansfield is £117 a week.

Similarly, Cardiff has not placed any homeless single people or families in B&Bs since June 2006, thanks to its “wide portfolio” of properties held in house.

You can find out more, and explore your own area’s data with an interactive map, here.