Figures released by the House of Commons in the 2018 report, Households in Temporary Accommodation (England), have revealed a 60% increase in the number of households in temporary accommodation in just six years.
Online housing agent Sellhousefast.uk, which specialises in repossession, sought to investigate the temporary accommodation crisis to determine an accurate number of those affected and where in the UK the highest levels of temporary accommodation can be found.
Utilising the report Households in Temporary Accommodation (England), which holds the most recent quarterly statistics (March 2018), Sellhousefast found 78,930 households were placed in temporary accommodation at the end of December 2017. This signifies an increase of 4.2% on 2016 figures taken from the same quarter.
Of the 78,930 households in temporary accommodation at the end of December 2017, 22,150 (28%) were in accommodation in another local authority’s district. This is an increase of 1% from 21,920, for the same period recorded in 2016. Altogether, the number of households placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local authority has increased by 201% over the last six years.
The March 2018 quarterly statistics marks the 266th time that the number of households in temporary accommodation is higher than in the same quarter of the previous year.
Sellhousefast.uk also found that outside of London, Birmingham has the highest number of households in temporary accommodation – at 1,951 in Q4 of 2017. This total is followed by Brighton and Hove (1,666), Manchester (1500) and Luton (1279).
The top five districts in England with the lowest rate of households in temporary accommodation were found to be Mendip (6), Rushcliffe (6), Vale of White Horse (6), Bassetlaw (5) and Lancaster (5.)
