Housing Needs: Young People

Sally Jameson Excerpts

Thursday 16th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Sally Jameson (Doncaster Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray) for bringing forward this debate. I will focus on the housing needs of care leavers and those with care experience.

Every year around 12,000 young people leave foster care or residential homes and begin their transition into independent living. For most young people, that stage of life can be supported by family, friends and a social network—they have a safety net—but so often for care leavers that safety net does not exist. As a result, they face a sharply heightened risk of homelessness: in 2024-25 alone, 4,610 care leavers aged between 18 and 20 experienced homelessness. That represents a 54% increase over five years, with rates rising 2.5 times faster than among the general population.

Those numbers represent young people who are being pushed into crisis at the very point that they should be building their future. The Government have recognised that challenge, and they are introducing important changes through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. That includes additional support for care leavers at risk of homelessness, a raft of changes in the Department of Health and Social Care around prescriptions, and wholesale reform of children’s social care. The Bill is a hugely positive and welcome step, but I hope that we can go further.

There remain significant barriers that prevent care leavers from accessing accessible and suitable accommodation. The private sector, which many young people rely on, is particularly difficult for them to navigate. Research from Centrepoint has found that care leavers are significantly more likely to be rejected by landlords, who are unwilling to rent to that particular group. At the same time, 40% reported they could not afford deposits and up-front costs.

Practical solutions do already exist, but they are not mandatory and they are not used widely enough. Local authority rent deposit and guarantor schemes make a real difference, yet fewer than half of councils currently offer them. Expanding such schemes could be a straightforward and effective way to open doors for care leavers who would otherwise be locked out of the housing market.

In Doncaster, we have fantastic organisations such as Doncaster Housing for Young People, which provides real support, particularly for those without a safety net. In Doncaster, like in so many areas, there is a critical shortage of affordable, move-on housing. Many young people are ready to live independently but are unable to do so because of a lack of appropriate accommodation. There are not enough one-bedroom properties and, as a result, young people are often penalised by things like the bedroom tax, which they simply cannot afford on basic universal credit.

Young people, particularly care leavers, who are supported by Doncaster Housing for Young People are ready to move on, but they are stuck. They are stuck not because they are unprepared or have not been supported, but because the system does not provide housing that they can realistically access.

If we are serious about improving outcomes for care leavers, we need to go further. We must increase the amount of genuinely affordable housing and ensure that they have access to it. We must expand access to practical support, such as deposit and guarantor schemes, where it is not already available. Finally, we must ensure that the welfare system as a whole works with, not against, young people who are trying to build independent lives in terms of both housing and employment. Leaving care should be the start of a future, not the beginning of a housing crisis.

[Several hon. Members rose—]