Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Conclusion 1
1st Report - England’s Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary accommodation
Published 3 Apr 2025
Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Children in Temporary Accommodation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The appalling conditions in some temporary accommodation in England are utterly shameful. We are concerned that issues of poor-quality temporary accommodation continue to persist, even though it is now over five years since the then Children’s Commissioner described these conditions as “simply inappropriate places for a child to be growing up”. Conditions in temporary accommodation are too often unfit for habitation, and risk having a serious detrimental impact on children’s development, wellbeing, and health. It is particularly shocking that in the last five years temporary accommodation has been a contributing factor to the deaths of at least 74 children, of whom 58 were under the age of one. (Conclusion, Paragraph 20)
From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, 1st Report - England’s Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary accommodation (HC 338), 3 April 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 June 2025 (deadline 3 June 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the inquiry and says it is keen to work with the Committee on its recommendations as it develops the homelessness strategy, agreeing with some points and disagreeing with others.
- It does not agree that councils should never place families in accommodation with facilities shared with single adults, saying well managed placements can be appropriate in some instances, though it agrees this "should be rare".
- It states that it wants to "eliminate the use of B&Bs for families other than in genuine emergencies" and is working with 20 local authorities through the £8 million Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots.
- On temporary accommodation standards, it intends the Decent Homes Standard to apply, "subject to consultation on the detail", and plans to consult on how best to apply Awaab's Law to accommodation occupied under licence.
- It commits to publishing the homelessness strategy "later this year" rather than by July 2025, and says detailed minutes of ministerial meetings "are not normally disclosed".