Recommendation 2

It is unacceptable that B&B accommodation is being used routinely to house people rather than as a last resort. We are alarmed at the detrimental impact that living in B&B accommodation has on people’s lives–not least on children, whose safety and wellbeing can be profoundly compromised by such living arrangements. Homelessness legislation makes it clear that B&Bs should be used only as a last resort and MHCLG recognises that it is “seriously sub-optimal”. Any local authority with more 4 than five families in B&Bs beyond the six-week limit is required to work with MHCLG’s Homelessness Advice and Support Team (HAST) to implement a plan for eliminating its use of B&Bs. These plans focus on approaches such as better prevention of families going into B&Bs, improving management of the temporary accommodation B&B stock, and finding alternative procurement of temporary accommodation. Yet as at June 2024, due to the scarcity of alternative accommodation, almost 6,000 homeless families with children were being housed in B&Bs, and almost 4,000 of these families had been there for longer than the statutory maximum period of six weeks. recommendation In its Treasury Minute response, MHCLG should set out how it intends to strengthen its use of HAST advisers in supporting local authorities to reduce their use of B&B accommodation. Alongside this MHCLG should support local authorities with high rates of temporary accommodation use to plan how to reduce their reliance on it.