Florence Eshalomi

I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for allocating time for this important statement. This week, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee published our fifth report as part of our inquiry into housing conditions across England. The subject of the report is housing conditions of temporary accommodation provided to households facing homelessness. We also published a report on social housing in February, and we hope to report on conditions in the private rented sector in the coming months. Members may remember our report on children in temporary accommodation last year. We found that accommodation provided to households was often in a poor state, with families left living with serious hazards. A year on, we wanted to look at the quality of accommodation provided to homeless households. The quality of this accommodation matters. Temporary accommodation is anything but temporary; people can spend years in it before they move to a more settled home. During that time, they can be forced to move—sometimes with little or no notice—away from their family and friends, away from their children’s schools, away from their community and away from the local services on which they depend. That creates a situation in which they feel forced to accept whatever housing they are given, regardless of how unsatisfactory it may be. If they complain, they sometimes fear that they may be moved again, or even worse, be deemed intentionally homeless. The quality of temporary accommodation matters because of the serious consequences that poor conditions can have on people’s health and wellbeing. Yesterday, the all-party parliamentary group for households in temporary accommodation reported that temporary accommodation has been listed as a contributing factor in the deaths of 104 children in England between 2019 and 2025. That figure includes 76 children under the age of one. Let that sink in: 76 children under one have died because of the conditions linked to their homes. The information we have on the prevalence of hazards and disrepair in temporary accommodation is limited. We are spending more than ever on temporary accommodation, yet we have limited information on the quality of accommodation provided to households. During our inquiry, we heard about the most shockingly poor conditions. We heard of mould so extensive that it had spread not only to the walls, but to people’s clothes, bedding and other belongings. There is a growing problem with infestation of mice, rats and other pests; we heard of a child who was bitten on the toe by a rat during the night, and another child who could not sleep properly after waking up covered in ants. We also heard about broken facilities, leaking sewage and exposed electrical wires. The list of poor conditions goes on. There is little space, with families sometimes housed in just one room. We heard about a family of six who shared one room with a double bed, a set of bunk beds, a small kitchenette and a toilet between them. Households with children can be placed in bed and breakfasts, hostels and other accommodation where they need to share facilities with other residents. The behaviour of the other residents can leave people feeling unsafe. We heard of situations where women and children fleeing domestic abuse were housed with single male adults. Sometimes, the condition of the property compounds this problem. For example, we heard of people living in shared accommodation without even basic functioning locks on their rooms. The Children’s Commissioner recently reported that, of the over 12,000 people living in shared accommodation as of June last year, over 9,500 had been living there for over six weeks. Even if the properties are in a good state, people living in temporary accommodation may not have access to some of the very basic things we all take for granted: somewhere to cook, somewhere to wash clothes, wi-fi, having people over to visit, and just being able to go and come without having to sign in at the reception desk. Through the national plan to end homelessness, the Government are taking steps to improve the quality of temporary accommodation and people’s experiences. We welcome the plan, and it is good to see the Minister for Local Government and Homelessness in her place. A lot of good work is under way, but the Government need to go further in strengthening the protections available to households living in temporary accommodation. I know that the Minister cares passionately about this. We welcome the Government’s plans to apply Awaab’s law to the new decent homes standard for temporary accommodation. We recommend that they start rolling out Awaab’s law urgently, so that it is fully applied to temporary accommodation before the end of this Parliament. We also want the Government to introduce interim milestones to ensure providers of temporary accommodation are on track to meet the new decent homes standard by 2035. In the meantime, councils should be required to inspect properties to make sure they are free from hazards, are in a decent condition and meet the needs of everyone in the household. We welcome the Government’s target to eliminate the unlawful use of B&B accommodation by the end of this Parliament. They are making really good progress so far; the number of households with children living in B&Bs and hotels for longer than the six-week statutory limit is falling. However, we have called on the Government to put in place safeguards to prevent councils from resorting to placing families in another local authority or in other types of shared accommodation in order to hit the target. The Children’s Commissioner has found that almost 6,000 children are living in council-run accommodation with shared facilities, such as shared kitchens and bathrooms. Our view is that this type of accommodation is simply not suitable for families, regardless of who runs it. We have called on the Government to extend the statutory six-week limit to other types of shared accommodation. We also remain concerned that there is no explicit rule to prevent or restrict councils from housing families, including single mothers with children, in accommodation where they have to share facilities with single male adults. We agree with the Government that temporary accommodation should provide homeless households with somewhere decent, safe and stable to live while they wait for permanent accommodation. Councils are working hard to increase the supply of good-quality temporary accommodation in the face of rising demand, but systemic barriers make it difficult, including unhelpful competition between councils, the Home Office and other public bodies for accommodation to fulfil their statutory duties; landlords increasingly opting to let properties on a nightly basis, rather than on a long-term lease; and the freeze to the local housing allowance and the rates councils can claim through the housing benefit subsidy. The Government must urgently address these barriers. We have also recommended that the Government should require councils to forecast future demand for temporary accommodation, and put in place plans for meeting this need. That includes ensuring there is adequate provision for people with more complex needs. The number of households living in temporary accommodation goes up and up every quarter, with 176,000 children living in TA as of September last year. Sadly, some of these children will spend a large part of their childhood without a permanent roof over their head, not knowing where they are going to call home after they finish school. I want to thank the many organisations, individuals, campaigners and local authorities that helped us with our inquiry by giving evidence, attending our sessions and making written submissions, and helped us with our visits. In particular, I thank the many families who we heard from at first hand, as they told us about their experience of living in temporary accommodation. In conclusion, we welcome the steps the Government have taken, but they need to go further to make sure those living in temporary accommodation have decent, safe and stable homes when they fall on hard times.