Cross-party report warns England’s temporary housing is unsafe for families

England’s temporary accommodation system has become a long-term housing trap for families, and children are paying the price in damp, mould, cold and overcrowding. A cross-party committee said more than 164,000 homeless children were living in temporary accommodation across England, the highest figure on record, while more than 80,000 families with children were stuck in the system.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee said the housing on offer is often wholly unsuitable for children. Its report cited serious damp and mould, excessive cold, mice infestations and severe overcrowding, warning that babies sometimes have no floor space to crawl or learn to walk, while older children are forced to share beds with parents or siblings. Some households, the committee said, are living out of suitcases and moving without notice as they are shifted from one place to another.

The health consequences are stark. The committee said temporary accommodation contributed to the deaths of at least 74 children in the past five years, including 58 children under the age of one. It also said local authorities spent a combined £2.29 billion on temporary accommodation in 2023/24, showing how deeply embedded the crisis has become in council budgets even as the conditions remain unsafe.

One family in Slough shows how that pressure lands in daily life. Nestere Yehdego, 31, his wife and their two daughters, aged four and one, are living in a one-bedroom flat. The cramped conditions have made ordinary routines difficult, leaving the family squeezed into a space never designed for four people. The toll on young children is especially alarming where damp, mould or other poor conditions are present, with families describing babies who scratch constantly and children struggling to sleep, play and stay well.

The report also said some councils are illegally keeping families in bed-and-breakfast accommodation beyond the six-week legal limit. The problem is concentrated in London and the South East, where housing pressure is greatest and temporary accommodation has increasingly replaced stable homes. Shelter said 164,040 children were homeless in temporary accommodation at the end of February, while 24,360 households were in B&Bs or hostels and 38,690 households had been moved out of area.

Florence Eshalomi, who chairs the committee, called it “utterly shameful” that families were living in B&Bs, bedsits and hotels that are completely unsuitable for children. The report leaves ministers and councils with the same question: why are repeated complaints still leaving families in unsafe housing, and why is a supposed stopgap now acting as a permanent system for children’s lives?