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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why there has been an increase between September 2013 and September 2014 in the number of statutorily homeless households placed in temporary accommodation in another local authority area.

This Government has invested over £500 million since 2010 to tackle all forms of homelessness and rough sleeping. The homelessness legislation in England provides one of the strongest safety nets in the world for families with children and vulnerable people who become homeless through no fault of their own. Until settled accommodation is available households will be placed in suitable temporary accommodation. In considering suitability housing authorities must, by law, consider whether the accommodation is affordable for the applicant, its size, its condition, its accessibility and also its location. We have made it clear that no council should be sending tenants en masse to a different part of the country.

The numbers of households in temporary accommodation is well below the peak under the previous administration, when they hit 101,000 in 2004. Councils have a responsibility to move homeless households into settled accommodation as quickly as possible. That is why we changed the law so that councils can place families in decent and affordable private rented homes more quickly. This will mean homeless households will not have to wait as long for settled accommodation, spending less time in temporary accommodation. Households now spend on average seven months less in temporary accommodation than at the start of 2010.

London Boroughs account for 93% of households provided with temporary accommodation in another district. London Councils have previously said that the vast majority of out of borough placements are within London, or where that is not the case, are local to the placing Borough.