Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 22
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
MHCLG and the Department for Work and Pensions must use the Inter- Ministerial Group as an opportunity to evaluate the link between welfare reforms and homelessness, particularly regarding LHA rates. We agree with the Government on the principle that, as far as possible, homelessness funding should be directed towards preventing homelessness in the first place. The Group should consider how best to move towards this preventative model while ensuring there are no unintended consequences 48 for local authorities. Specifically, it should consider the impact of the 49% ringfence of HPG funding for prevention on local authorities that are currently spending a high proportion of HPG funding on temporary accommodation. (Recommendation, Paragraph 89)
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".