The “national emergency” of homelessness is in urgent need of a “need approach” from national government according to London Councils, the organisation that represents the capital’s 33 local authorities.
Its call comes in response to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO), the UK’s public spending watchdog, which says that homelessness across the country “is now at the highest level since comparable data collection began in the early 2000s”, with London being one of the areas “where homelessness pressures are particularly acute”.
London Councils says almost 60 per cent of homeless households in temporary accommodation in England are in London, accounting for an estimated 175,000 people – roughly one in 50 of the capital’s residents in all, and affecting one in 23 of its children.
Grace Williams, the cross party group’s executive member for housing and regeneration says the NAO report shows that “government policy could be far more effective in tackling homelessness and getting to grips with its underlying causes”.
She lists “better co-ordination across government departments, greater housing security, sufficient funding for councils, and more investment in building affordable homes” as key actions that could bring about an improvement.
Williams, who is also leader of Labour-run Waltham Forest, stresses the determination of London’s boroughs to “work with the new government and the Mayor of London in tackling this crisis” without delay.
The NAO report, entitled The Effectiveness of Government in Tackling Homelessness, assesses the work in this area of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) – now retitled the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government – over recent years.
It reveals that, nationally, the proportion of local authorities’ total expenditure spent on housing services, excluding in relation to their own properties, rose from 25 per cent in 2010/11 to 60 per cent in 2022/23, with the resulting cost “putting a strain on some authorities’ overall finances”.
The report also shows that London’s local authorities face particular difficulties with finding households temporary accommodation within their own areas due to lack of housing supply and the availability of suitable dwellings locally.
Almost 80 per cent of households placed outside their local areas in the third quarter of 2023/24 were the responsibility of a London borough – around 26,380 people – although London Councils told the NAO that the majority of these remained within Greater London.
A number of inter-related policy decision have contributed to rising homelessness, the NAO says, including the periodic capping and freezing of Local Housing Allowance (LHA), insecure private sector tenancies and, in particular, a lack of housing for social rent.
It notes that Sadiq Khan, following negotiations with the DLUHC, lowered the Greater London Authority’s affordable homebuilding target from its original target of 35,000 started between 2021 and 2026 to between 23,900 and 27,100 due to the severe economic conditions that have hit housing supply in general.
The report says that the DLUHC “significantly improved its understanding of the nature and causes of homelessness” but has lacked a strategy for co-ordinating its response and had only “limited power” to influence other government departments whose decisions can affect homelessness services.
It concludes that “funding remains fragmented and generally short-term”, which makes it harder to prevent homelessness in the first place and to invest in more suitable homes. It adds: “Until these factors are addressed across government, DLUHC will not be able to demonstrate that it is delivering optimal value for money from its efforts to tackle homelessness.”
In its response to the report, London Councils picks up several of its themes, asking for a “boost in homelessness prevention grant funding” which councils use to help those at risk of falling into homelessness, the removal of the cap on LHA for temporary accommodation, more money to purchase homes on the private market, and a “cross-departmental strategy” for bringing homelessness down.
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