B&B use for homelessness

#15 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The ministry must require councils to report publicly on the length of time households remain in such facilities and justify any decision to keep households in these facilities beyond six-weeks. By the end of this year, the ministry must publish …

Response Pending

#14 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We reiterate our earlier recommendation that the ministry must amend the definition of B&B accommodation in the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2003 to restrict the placement of families in other types of accommodation with shared facilities to a …

Response Pending

#13 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We remain concerned that the definition of B&B in the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2003 does not prevent families being placed in similar accommodation, without any restrictions on the time local authorities can house them there. We recognise …

Response Pending

#15 — HAST actively supports local authorities to reduce B&B reliance through ongoing reviews and advice.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: We asked MHCLG how successfully HAST was supporting local authorities to move away from B&B use. It told us that advisers are based in MHCLG offices all around the country, but they generally spend their time working alongside local authorities. …

Gov response: 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 In January 2025, MHCLG launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots, which was backed by £5 million to work with 20 local authorities with the …

Accepted

#14 — MHCLG requires B&B elimination plans from local authorities exceeding statutory limits.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: We challenged MHCLG about what it is doing to help local authorities reduce their reliance on B&Bs. It explained that it had added a condition to the Homelessness Prevention Grant, so that it now requires any local authority with more …

Gov response: 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 In January 2025, MHCLG launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots, which was backed by £5 million to work with 20 local authorities with the …

Accepted

#13 — MHCLG acknowledges B&B accommodation is sub-optimal but necessary for statutory duties.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: MHCLG conceded that placing families in B&B accommodation is a “seriously sub-optimal” way of accommodating them. It therefore assumes that local authorities should use as little B&B accommodation as they can. However, if using B&Bs is the only way to …

Gov response: 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 In January 2025, MHCLG launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots, which was backed by £5 million to work with 20 local authorities with the …

Accepted

#12 — Thousands of families exceed statutory six-week B&B limit due to housing shortages.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: Reflecting these concerns, the homelessness code of guidance states that local authorities should use B&Bs for households with children only as a last resort, and even then, for a maximum of six weeks. However, MHCLG told us that, as at …

Gov response: 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 In January 2025, MHCLG launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots, which was backed by £5 million to work with 20 local authorities with the …

Accepted

#11 — Significant concerns exist regarding B&B suitability for temporary accommodation, particularly for children.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: There are particular concerns about the use of B&Bs as temporary accommodation, regarding the suitability of the environment and location, safeguarding in mixed settings, and a lack of support from wider public services. Children in B&Bs often face particular challenges, …

Gov response: 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 In January 2025, MHCLG launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots, which was backed by £5 million to work with 20 local authorities with the …

Accepted

#2 — Strengthen MHCLG's use of HAST advisers and support local authorities to reduce B&B reliance.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: 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 …

Gov response: The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented In January 2025, MHCLG launched the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots, which was backed by £5 million to work with 20 local authorities with the highest use …

Accepted

#30 — Home Office competition for accommodation exacerbates local authority homelessness costs and housing pressures.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: The National Audit Office reported that the increase in asylum decisions had placed greater pressure on local authorities to support refugees in finding accommodation and increased the risk of homelessness and rough sleeping.107 The previous Public Accounts Committee also raised …

Under Consideration

#8 — Require Government strategy to end family placements in shared temporary accommodation within six weeks.

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The Government’s forthcoming strategy on ending homelessness must set out a clear plan to end placements of families in temporary accommodation with shared facilities, starting by reducing and eliminating placements of over six weeks. (Recommendation, Paragraph 47) Out-of-area temporary accommodation

Gov response: As set out in response to recommendation 4 above, we do not agree with the Committee that it will never be appropriate for families to be accommodated in temporary accommodation with shared facilities. There can …

Not Accepted

#4 — Unlawful and prolonged use of B&Bs for family temporary accommodation is increasing.

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The shortage of social housing in England has led local authorities to rely on using B&Bs and other accommodation with shared facilities as temporary accommodation, which are inappropriate and potentially unsafe environments for children to grow up in. The Government …

Gov response: 17. Where the temporary accommodation is not managed by a local authority, a registered social landlord, or voluntary organisation, accommodation types such as hostels as cited in the report will be covered by the definition …

Accepted

#21 — Prioritise closure of unsuitable asylum hotels causing harm and significant pressure on services.

Home Affairs Committee

Recommendation: When planning the closure of the hotels, the Home Office should prioritise the closure of manifestly unsuitable hotels—such as those in remote areas and near limited infrastructure—that cause the most harm to their residents and place the most pressure on …

Gov response: The Home Secretary has announced that we will close asylum hotels as soon as possible, and by the end of this Parliament. This is a complex process that must be delivered through a controlled, managed …

Partially Accepted

#20 — Inappropriate asylum hotel use causes significant harm and impacts community cohesion.

Home Affairs Committee

Recommendation: Long stays in inappropriate hotels are often deeply harmful to the people accommodated there. Local services are left to respond to these impacts and fill the gaps where the basic needs of asylum seekers are not being met. The use …

Gov response: The Home Secretary has announced that we will close asylum hotels as soon as possible, and by the end of this Parliament. This is a complex process that must be delivered through a controlled, managed …

Not Addressed

#1 — Home Office failures led to costly, widespread hotel use in asylum accommodation.

Home Affairs Committee

Recommendation: Instead of acting as a short-term contingency measure, the use of hotels has become a widespread and embedded part of the asylum accommodation system, increasing the cost of the asylum accommodation contracts by billions of pounds beyond the original forecast. …

Gov response: The Home Office recognises that hotels became a significant part of the asylum accommodation system due to unprecedented demand and limited contractual flexibility. As part of the Government’s ‘Restoring Order and Control’ programme, the Home …

Accepted

#29 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We are concerned about councils’ increasing reliance on privately managed, nightly-paid accommodation. This provision is not merely expensive. The use of nightly-paid accommodation limits councils’ ability to raise standards and offers little stability to households who are at risk of …

Response Pending

#22 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The government must require local authorities to conduct mandatory inspections before placing households in temporary accommodation to determine that the accommodation they have arranged adequately caters for people’s physical and medical needs. The Government should also strengthen the statutory guidance …

Response Pending

#21 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We are alarmed to hear of people with physical disabilities, medical conditions and other complex needs being placed in accommodation that is unsuitable for them. Part of the solution to this problem is improving the quality of supply available locally. …

Response Pending

#20 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We recommend that the Secretary of State amend the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) Order 2003 to extend the six-week limit to accommodation that cannot comply with the new Decent Homes Standard. The six-week limit should apply from the date that …

Response Pending

#19 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We welcome the government’s decision to apply the Decent Homes Standard to temporary accommodation. However, we are concerned that the standard will not guarantee people housed in some types of temporary accommodation access to the basic facilities, such as a …

Response Pending

#18 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: It is not acceptable for households in temporary accommodation to be left living for months, if not longer, without access to the basic facilities they need for daily life. The ministry must introduce further measures to improve households’ access to …

Response Pending

#17 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The ministry must update the statutory guidance to make clear that placing families in accommodation where the need to share facilities with single male adults is not suitable and should work with councils to bring such placements to an end. …

Response Pending

#16 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We remain concerned that there is no explicit rule to prevent or restrict councils from housing families, including single mothers with children, in accommodation where they need to share facilities with single male adults. (Conclusion, Paragraph 55)

Response Pending

#12 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The government must ensure that there are effective sanctions in place for local authorities who repeatedly breach the six-week limit and who are not taking reasonable steps to eliminate their use of B&Bs by the end of the Parliament. The …

Response Pending

#11 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We agree with the government’s decision to prioritise eliminating the unlawful use of B&B accommodation by the end of the Parliament. The government and councils have made good progress at reducing the number of families living in B&B accommodation longer …

Response Pending

#9 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We are deeply concerned about the lack of space provided to some families living in temporary accommodation and the potentially harmful effects this can have on children’s safety, wellbeing and development. The standards used to determine if homes are statutorily …

Response Pending

#1 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: Much of the evidence we received supports the conclusion that temporary accommodation is often so poor as to be unfit for human habitation. However, the absence of official statistics on the physical condition and quality of temporary accommodation means it …

Response Pending

#14 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: The accommodation contracts allow providers to use hotels as contingency accommodation to meet excess demand. Throughout 2017 and 2018, fewer than 100 people had stayed in hotels each night. But since October 2019, this number has increased to more than …

Gov response: 2.2 The government is committed to reducing and ending the routine use of hotel accommodation and is taking a range of steps with providers to achieve this. One of the ways in which the use …

Not Addressed

#15 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: Since October 2020, the Department has made a series of smaller funding commitments for the winter months, including a £10 million Cold Weather Fund, £12 million Protect Programme and £10 million in January 2021 for extra COVID protection for people …

Under Consideration

#14 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: In addition, the Department is providing around £700 million for rough sleeping and homelessness in 2020–21, with the majority of this funding distributed through local authorities.49 Before the pandemic, the Department had planned to spend £495 million in 2020–21, as …

Under Consideration

#13 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: As of January 2021, local authorities said they were expecting to spend an extra £192 million in the 2020–21 financial year, in respect of additional spending on homelessness and rough sleeping as a result of the pandemic.46 The Department considers …

Under Consideration

#12 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: In June 2020 the Department began regular data collections from local authorities on numbers of people sleeping rough in their area.40 In spite of the Everyone In initiative (and other measures, such as a ban on evictions in the private …

Under Consideration

#11 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: The Department publishes one official measure of rough sleeping, its annual snapshot, which estimates the number of people sleeping rough on one night every autumn.34 The latest annual snapshot of figure before the pandemic, taken in autumn 2019 was 4,266.35 …

Under Consideration

#10 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: Tackling rough sleeping on its own without addressing homelessness as a whole may even worsen other measures of homelessness, if it means only placing more people in temporary accommodation, thereby adding to the number of homeless households.29 Baroness Casey told …

Under Consideration

#16 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: There has been a lack of recent focus from the Government on wider homelessness, including those suffering in cramped, poor quality temporary accommodation for long periods of time during the pandemic. The Government must ensure its increased homelessness funding does …

Gov response: Time spent in temporary accommodation means people are getting help and it ensures no family is without a roof over their head. The Government is committed to reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing …

Under Consideration

#11 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We call on the Government to return to the spirit of the early pandemic and re- commit to Everyone In. This requires providing legal clarity for local authorities. We recommend the Government immediately issues clear guidance to local authorities stating …

Gov response: This Department has and continues to work with local authorities regarding support that can be offered to those individuals ineligible for statutory homelessness support under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996. This includes those …

Under Consideration

#9 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: There are substantial differences between a well-established severe weather emergency protocol, which provides short-term accommodation, often in night shelters or other communal spaces, and providing long-term accommodation in self-contained en-suite units with significant wraparound support. While there can be some …

Under Consideration

#14 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: The National Audit Office report found that the Programme could bring greater value to other parts of government, for example, in reducing the numbers of people in temporary accommodation. Local authority spend on homelessness has increased 50% in real-terms from …

Gov response: 4. PAC conclusion: The Department does not quantify potential savings in some areas, such as temporary accommodation, into the Programme. 4. PAC recommendation: Before the next iteration of the Programme, the Department should quantify the …

Accepted

#11 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: We asked the Department about the number of homes designated for social rent, given social rent is the most affordable for tenants; and the type of tenure most needed. We stressed the human impact that a lack of homes for …

Gov response: 3. PAC conclusion: We are concerned that the number of homes being built for social rent is not enough to meet demand. 3. PAC recommendation: The Department should assess how much demand there is for …

Not Addressed

#4 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: The Department does not quantify potential savings in some areas, such as temporary accommodation, into the Programme. Surprisingly, the Department can identify, but not quantify, savings in areas such as temporary accommodation and adult social care that the public purse …

Gov response: The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. flow from increasing the supply of affordable housing. The evaluation for the 2021 programme will collect evidence through resident surveys to help the department understand many of these, …

Accepted

#2 — Families face prolonged temporary accommodation stays amid England's severe housing crisis.

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: During our inquiry we have also heard that, for many families, life in temporary accommodation is far from ‘temporary’. In some cases, families spend years in temporary accommodation, stuck in limbo without the stability of permanent accommodation and knowing that …

Gov response: 13. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) provides an essential service investigating complaints when a homeless applicant is not satisfied with how the council has handled their case. It is important to have …

Under Consideration

#34 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The ministry should require local authorities in their action plans to forecast future demand for temporary accommodation locally and set out a 10- year plan for delivering a sustainable supply of good-quality temporary accommodation that is decent, safe and stable. …

Response Pending

#31 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: We remained concerned the government’s decision to freeze the Local Housing Allowance is contributing to more people being more at risk of homelessness and in need of temporary accommodation. The freeze also makes it difficult for councils to help households …

Response Pending

#30 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The government must require local authorities in their action plans to set out how they plan to reduce their reliance on nightly-paid accommodation and provide updates on their progress. The government should also work with local authorities to understand the …

Response Pending

#25 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The rules that determine the amount of money councils can claim through the Housing Benefit subsidy system is restricting their ability to source good-quality temporary accommodation for households. The Department for Work and Pension’s ongoing freeze of the subsidy rates …

Response Pending

#23 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The ministry should require councils to forecast demand for people with complex needs as part of their action plans to highlight where there are gaps in provision and demonstrate how the funds allocated through the Local Authority Housing Fund are …

Response Pending

#6 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The government must require local authorities to carry-out mandatory inspections before properties are first used as temporary accommodation, ahead of new households moving in and periodically thereafter. As we mentioned in our last report, the government should provide additional funding, …

Response Pending

#17 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: At the outset of Everyone In, the Department gave a clear message to local authorities that, as this was a public health emergency, they were to bring everyone in (“whether they are from Bromley or Portugal”), irrespective of immigration status …

Under Consideration

#1 —

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (the Department).1 We also took evidence from Baroness Casey, who temporarily led the Department’s pandemic response …

Gov response: Based on a report by the National Audit Office, the Committee took evidence, on 25 January 2021 from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The Committee published its report on 17 March …

Under Consideration

#17 —

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: The Government will fail in its homelessness objectives if it continues to oversee the delivery of just a few thousand social rent homes a year. The ongoing shortage of social housing is a clear, long-term obstacle to finding suitable accommodation …

Gov response: Time spent in temporary accommodation means people are getting help and it ensures no family is without a roof over their head. The Government is committed to reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing …

Under Consideration