Warning Of A Rise In Homelessness By 2020

Up to 80,000 families face the prospect of becoming homeless by 2020, it has been claimed.

With homelessness having increased by 54% since 2010, John Healey, former shadow housing minister, has published his projections for the next five years. In doing so, he hopes to persuade the Prime Minister, Theresa May, to abandon cuts to housing support and housing benefit proposed by the former Chancellor, George Osborne.

The figures, which include 60,000 households with children, is in addition to those sleeping rough. The new statistics will alarm campaigners who have already warned the country’s most vulnerable people would not be able to afford the rent on their homes if the Government goes ahead with the budget cuts.

The bleak outlook from Mr. Healey, revealed by The Independent newspaper, is based on the average annual increase of homeless households in Britain between 2009 and 2016, which currently stands at 6.3%. If this trend continued over the next five years, this would mean 78,393 homelessness cases by 2020-21.

Mr. Healey, a former local government minister, said: “The Conservatives’ record on housing is six years of failure, and in no area is this more painfully clear than homelessness.”

“We should all be ashamed that in one of the richest countries in the world there has been such a huge increase in the number of people who are homeless over the last six years. These figures are a stark warning for Theresa May not to continue with the same decisions on housing and social security that have failed so badly over the last six years.”

Mr. Healy added that the PM should be exempting homelessness hostels and other specialist accommodation from the planned £1 billion of cuts. “I first urged minister to exempt specialist homes from these cuts back in December, but they have not listened so far,” he added.

“Theresa May should also take the opportunity the growing homelessness crisis to strengthen the law to help prevent homelessness happening in the first place, as Labour has done in Wales.”

A Government spokesman told The Independent: “This is unnecessary scaremongering. The truth is statutory homelessness remains less than half the 2003-04 peak, but we know one person without a home is one too many.”

“That’s why we are investing over £500m to both tackle homelessness and prevent it happening in the first place. We also continue to spend around £90bn a year on working age benefits, to ensure a strong safety net for the most vulnerable. The causes of homelessness are varied and complex, so across Government we are considering how to improve services, including around mental health and addiction support.”