LGA to release new Homelessness Position Paper while calling for “long-term solutions” from next Prime Minister

This comes as new analysis from the LGA has found that council expenditure on temporary accommodation (TA) increased by 1077 per cent in real terms between 2011/12 and 2024/25.

The key asks from the Homelessness Position Paper are:

• Ensuring that stakeholders are incentivised to prevent homelessness and held to account for delivering their role in prevention and that the cross-departmental targets are across delivery considerations.

• Resources are aligned with preventative goals, are flexible and stable in the long-term, and sufficient for stakeholders to effectively deliver their role in homelessness prevention. This includes:

o A commitment from government to support local authorities with the increasing costs of temporary accommodation;
o Uprating the temporary accommodation subsidy rate to 90 per cent of the prevailing LHA rate;
o Ensuring LHA rates at minimum keep pace with the bottom 30% of local rents alongside reviewing the shared accommodation rate and the benefit cap.

• Creating the conditions for effective local-level partnerships and ensuring that implementation is guided through collaboration between local and central government, as well as third sector partners.

• Driving and sharing the results of experimentation and rigorous evaluation and supporting efforts to scale proven interventions.

The LGA described Temporary Accommodation as a “major drain on council finances”, as more people turn to their council for support with housing.

While households receive the full housing benefit they are entitled to, the amount councils can claim back from the Department for Work and Pensions is currently capped to 90% of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates from back in 2011.

This means councils are not able to claim back costs that reflect what they are spending.

In light of this, the LGA has called on the Government to address this issue by uprating the LHA rate councils can be reimbursed to 90% of the current LHA rates.

Cllr Eamonn O’Brien, Chair of the LGA, said: “Temporary accommodation is a huge leak in council budgets that needs to be patched quickly and, at its heart, transform the lives of families and children across the country.

“While the Government’s focus on prevention has been encouraging, we need both swift action and long-term solutions from the next Prime Minister and their administration.

“The way that councils are reimbursed by central government is not working, and it’s impacting the entire country due to the knock-on effect on budgets and all other services.

“The increasing use of temporary accommodation is not only financially unsustainable for councils but is hugely disruptive for individuals and families placed in them.

“Ensuring there are sufficient homes for people is the foundation for strong communities – as our plan to tackle homelessness shows, councils are a key player in this effort and we look forward to working with the government towards this goal.”

An MHCLG spokesperson said: “We’re working to prevent homelessness, with a £3.6 billion investment to provide more supported housing, end the unlawful use of B&Bs for families and halve long term rough sleeping – getting people off the streets and into stable accommodation.

“We’re also making £78 billion available to councils across the country through our fair funding settlement and core spending power will increase by over 24% for councils across England by 2028-29.”