Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of children placed in temporary housing.

Temporary accommodation provides an important safety net and means that no one has to be without a roof over their heads.

We brought the Homelessness Reduction Act into force in April 2018. This is the biggest and most ambitious change to homelessness legislation in decades, focusing on preventing homelessness in the first place, and ensuring more people are getting the help they need.

We also replaced DWP’s Temporary Accommodation Management Fee with a Flexible Homelessness Support Grant which local authorities can use more strategically to prevent homelessness and help households find a settled home. This amounts to £615 million over three years from 2017/18.

Our new Homelessness Advice and Support Team, drawn from local authorities and the homelessness sector, is providing support to authorities to deliver the Homelessness Reduction Act and effective Homelessness Services. The number of families in B&B accommodation is down by 28 per cent compared to the same time last year. The number of households with children in B&B accommodation for longer than 6 weeks is down by 38 per cent on the same time last year.

There are councils who are successfully reducing the number and length of time families are spending in B&B accommodation. For example, the London Borough of Barnet has developed a targeted programme of support to reduce the use of temporary accommodation. From December 2016 to March 2018 it reduced the number of children living in Temporary Accommodation by 11 per cent. We expect areas in similar situations to follow their example.