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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the implications for the education, health and well-being of children in homeless families; and what actions they propose to take to reduce the number of children in homeless families in bed and breakfast accommodation.

Placing families in temporary accommodation avoids a homelessness crisis and means no child will end up on the streets. However, the Government has been clear that placing families with children in bed and breakfast accommodation for longer than 6 weeks is both unacceptable and unlawful and we recognise the disruption this can have on children. Authorities must by law consider the impact any change in the location of accommodation will have on a household such as proximity to education and medical facilities. A small number of authorities (5%) account for 80% of cases where the 6 week limit is exceeded. The use of bed and breakfast accommodation for families with children is less than a third of the peak it was in 2002.

We provided funding to authorities so they could test innovative and sustainable approaches that would tackle this issue. The lessons learned have been disseminated to other authorities across the country.

Households leaving temporary accommodation now spend on average 7 months less than they did in 2010.