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9:34 AM, 31st August 2023, About 8 months ago 7
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London’s boroughs are sounding the alarm over the escalating housing pressures after it was revealed that there has been a surge in landlords pulling their properties from being used temporarily by homeless households.
The crisis has reached ‘new extremes’, leaving local authorities grappling to accommodate the rising number of vulnerable individuals and families.
A recent survey by London Councils shows that between September 2022 and April 2023, a shocking 15 boroughs reported receiving a significant influx of Notices to Quit from landlords.
The notice is a legal requirement for the return of their properties, which were being used as temporary accommodation.
London Councils says 3,531 properties have now been removed – a staggering 120% surge from the 1,601 notices received during the same period in 2021-22.
That’s a devastating 6% loss of London’s overall stock of temporary accommodation.
London Councils’ executive member for regeneration, housing and planning, Cllr Darren Rodwell, said: “Turbulence in the private rented sector is a key factor behind the capital’s skyrocketing rates of homelessness.
“The combination of fast-rising private rents and a dramatic fall in the availability of rental properties is driving housing pressures in the capital to new extremes.”
He added: “Boroughs are seriously struggling to secure temporary accommodation for homeless families.
“Across London we see landlords withdrawing their properties from use as temporary accommodation, with the result that boroughs run out of alternatives and end up placing more and more families with children in unsuitable B&Bs.
“Nobody wants this happening, but boroughs face a complete lack of other options for keeping a roof over an increasing number of homeless families’ heads.
“The homelessness situation in London is becoming unmanageable.
“We need the government to treat this as the emergency it is and work with us in reversing the numbers relying on temporary accommodation.”
Temporary accommodation, a crucial lifeline for homeless households, is arranged by councils to bridge the gap until more permanent housing can be secured.
This form of accommodation includes private, council and housing association properties, as well as rooms within hostels, bed and breakfasts, or hotels.
London Councils’ estimates that nearly 170,000 London residents are currently experiencing homelessness while staying in temporary accommodations.
That equates to one in every 50 Londoners – and one in every 23 children in the capital.
Also, the number of households entitled to homelessness support from a London borough, which includes the duty to provide homelessness prevention or relief, surged by 15.2% between April 2022 and April 2023.
There has been a 781% increase in the number of homeless families being placed in bed and breakfast accommodation – surpassing the legal six-week limit.
In April 2023, 1,287 London families found themselves confined to unsuitable B&B accommodation, in stark contrast to the 146 families in the same predicament during the previous year.
The financial burden on boroughs is becoming overwhelming as the numbers of homeless individuals grow with boroughs racking up a £60 million bill each month just on temporary accommodation expenses.
Teessider
11:59 AM, 31st August 2023, About 8 months ago
On a country scale, there are not enough properties (or there are too many people).
On a worldwide scale, there are too many people depleting the Earth’s resources.
The temporary answer is to build more house very quickly. The long term answer is to stop seeing growth figures as a positive thing,
JB
12:00 PM, 31st August 2023, About 8 months ago
Oh what a surprise!
Juan Degales
12:25 PM, 31st August 2023, About 8 months ago
And still the demonisation of landlords continues .
The penny will soon be dropping to the realisation that they,the government and charities, need us,the landlords, more than we need them.
Reluctant Landlord
13:06 PM, 31st August 2023, About 8 months ago
put this stat in your pipe and smoke it Shelter & Gen rent!
Dennis Leverett
16:49 PM, 31st August 2023, About 8 months ago
How long before they actually ask themselves the question "why is this really happening"
Bob Lowden
18:12 PM, 31st August 2023, About 8 months ago
Well spotted Teesider. Successive governments and financial pundits all quote growing GDP as a great achievement. No it's not. It is too easily achieved just by allowing immigration to continue to increase our population beyond what it would otherwise have been. The housing crisis is just one of the results. Higher GDP does not mean a higher standard of living, quite the opposite.
Peter Merrick
8:01 AM, 2nd September 2023, About 8 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Juan Degales at 31/08/2023 - 12:25
This is really the crux of the matter. Government et al have long seen landlords as a problem that needs to be eliminated and swiftly enacted policies to purge the country of this landlord class that are little more than parasites who exploit the poor renters who are at their mercy. The less of us, the better, until they have to provide their own accommodation. It's really all part of the modern so-called "culture wars", where you pick on a group of people to demonise to make yourself look good by comparison.