Children in temporary accommodation hits record high

Ronesha says being moved around has been very disruptive for her sons The number of homeless children in England living in temporary accommodation has risen 5% in a year to 177,530, according to new government figures. January to March saw the 18th quarterly increase in a row, although the number of children living in B&Bs has fallen. Meanwhile, the total number of households in temporary accommodation increased by nearly 4% in a year, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to introduce "the biggest council house-building programme since the postwar period". Ronesha, 31, has been living in temporary accommodation with her two sons since 2024, after being made homeless following a no-fault eviction. She could not afford to rent privately and discovered that many social landlords wanted prospective tenants to have a guarantor. The family was housed in a B&B for seven weeks - beyond the six-week limit - without proper cooking facilities or a fridge for her son's medication, she said, before being moved into their current accommodation. "Living in temporary accommodation has taken a huge toll on my family," she said. Ronesha, who lives in North London, is a registered carer for her younger child, who has type one diabetes and other complex needs. He has found the instability of being moved between temporary homes very difficult to cope with, she said. Shelter said it wanted him to use October's Budget to "kickstart the council house revolution he promised" . The total number of households in B&B accommodation fell by almost a quarter in the year to March, with the number of households containing children living in B&Bs falling by half. About 1,000 households with children had been in B&B accommodation for more than the six-week limit, although this represented a fall on a year earlier. "While it's welcome that more households are being helped into a home and fewer families are living in bed and breakfast accommodation, these figures show there is still a long way to go, with record numbers stuck in temporary accommodation," Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said. The government has also pledged an additional £340m to end rough sleeping.