Over 100,000 children will be without a home this Christmas

The labour government have revealed that more than 120,000 children in England are facing homelessness, blaming the Conservative party.

Labour have discovered, 120,710 children will be opening their Christmas presents in temporary accommodation with the majority of these not having had a permanent home since June. The political party also discovered 2,320 of these children have been living in a bed and breakfast.

Various charities and experts have raised concerns that the situation has worsened this Christmas after the Conservatives crashed the economy and failed to get a grip of inflation, labour have said.

In response to this, the Local Government Association (LGA) have said ‘urgent work’ needs to be done to stop the quality of children’s lives further declining. This includes helping them with schooling and social lives.

Crisis, a leading homelessness charity, has warned more than 30,000 people and families across Britain could be forced into homelessness next year – an increase of around a third from 2019.

Paula Baker, Shadow Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Minister, said: ‘These figures are stark. It is shameful that so many children will find themselves in temporary accommodation, including B&Bs, this Christmas.

‘The Tories’ self-inflicted financial crisis and their 12 years of failure on the economy means they have failed our most vulnerable children and their promises to prevent people from falling into homelessness aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.’

In a bid to help create more permeant homes for families, the LGA said councils should be given the right powers to provoke developers to build more properties, including being able to charge full council tax for every unbuilt development.

The association also highlighted the impact the freezing of Local Housing Allowance rates, which the government is set to freeze at 2023 cash levels despite housing rates having already increased to 15.8% and are expected to climb, has had on the number of people being made homeless.

Cllr David Renard, a Housing Spokesperson for the LGA, said: ‘Living in temporary accommodation can cause great disruption for children and families and is especially difficult for many families at Christmas time.

‘As we face the reality of a national homelessness crisis, it is crucial we make addressing the chronic housing shortage a priority.

‘Suitable housing must be found for those already homeless, but we must also ensure everything possible is being done to combat the rising cost of living and prevent further people from becoming homeless.

‘The best way to improve housing security is to address the unaffordability of housing by giving councils the right powers and investment to build 100,000 new social rent homes a year, and to reform the Right to Buy scheme so that it is more sustainable.

‘Government should also use the upcoming finance settlement to urgently review Local Housing Allowance rates to ensure that at least a third of the market is affordable for people claiming housing related benefits.’

Photo by Christian Erfurt and Andreea Popa