17 December 2004
Labour faces the embarrassment of going into next year's general election defending a record of rising homelessness after ministers admitted that numbers will continue increasing for another three years.
Figures published this week by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister show that 100,810 families were housed in temporary accommodation at the end of September – up by 1,430 on the previous quarter.
As numbers exceeded 100,000 for the first time, it was also revealed that the government is losing its battle to keep families with children out of bed and breakfast accommodation.
At the end of September, 1,370 families with children were in B&B – a rise of 320. This included 190 who had been in B&B for more than six weeks, contravening legislation that came into force in April.
An ODPM spokesman said it was in contact with councils that are using B&Bs for more than six-week emergency periods, but added that it was up to individual families to take legal action.
Adam Sampson, director of Shelter, said it was perverse of the government to expect vulnerable people to enforce the law.
Earlier, a technical note hidden away on the ODPM website suggested that the upward trend is unlikely to be reversed before 2007 while, by 2016, the figure could still be as high as 70,000.
The overall increase in homelessness, said Sampson, was mainly due to a lack of affordable housing. Market renewal schemes in the north of England had made the situation worse by encouraging house price inflation and demolition programmes.
He blamed Labour for sticking to Conservative spending plans after the 1997 election, when 41,250 households were homeless. 'Housing is one of the areas that this government has conspicuously failed to drive forward,' he said.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott attempted to put a positive gloss on the figures by announcing a £150m package to improve the condition of hostels, along with services provided by councils and voluntary agencies.
He also pointed out that 80% of households classed as homeless were living in good-quality self-contained homes, and that the number of new homeless cases was falling.
'There are no "quick fixes" to tackling homelessness,' said Prescott at the launch of the package on December 13.
Meanwhile, a Shelter survey to be published in January suggests that two-thirds of local authority homelessness officers try to reduce the numbers accepted as homeless because of government pressure.
PFdec2004
