Council Spending On B&Bs For Homeless Increased By 430% Over Last Decade

Local authorities are spending over five times more on housing homeless people in B&Bs than they were a decade ago, research by the Local Government Association (LGA) has found. Official figures show that councils in England spent £142m placing homeless households in B&Bs in 2019/20, up 430% from £26.7m in 2010/11. There are currently 10,510 households living in B&Bs, according to provisional data, compared to 2,310 a decade ago, marking a 355% increase. The LGA said these figures underline “the desperate need to build more social housing”. Read more on Inside Housing.

Inside Housing - News - Council spending on B&Bs for homeless increased by 430% over last decade, research shows 

Temporary Accommodation Spend Soars To £1.2bn

Spending on temporary accommodation by local authorities increased to £1.2bn last year, with the vast majority being paid to private landlords, letting agents or companies. Latest data published by the government shows that in 2019/20, councils spent £1.19bn on temporary accommodation, up 9% from the amount spent last year and up 55% from 2014/15. Of the total spent in England last year, 87% went to private landlords, letting agents or companies, a 66% increase on the amount paid to private providers in 2014/15. Spending on emergency B&B accommodation has increased by 73% since 2014/15. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/temporary-accommodation-spend-soars-to-12bn-with-majority-being-paid-to-private-companies-68305 

Council Spending ‘Cut By Nearly One-Third since 2010’

Council spending will have fallen by nearly 30% by the end of the current parliament as a result of government funding reductions, an analysis of expenditure by CIPFA has found. The data, compiled by CIPFA and the CLG as part of the 2014/15 Revenue Account Budget Estimates return, means council spending will have fallen back to the level of 2005/06 in cash terms. The cash reduction in per capita spending between 2009/10 – the last year of the previous Parliament – and 2014/15 will be 14.5%. However, this rises to 29.1% when adjusted to take account of inflation over the period. Read more on the Public Finance website.