“Rising homelessness demonstrates the need for the duties that the Homelessness Reduction Act imposed on councils are fully funded and resourced."
Responding to the latest homelessness figures, Cllr Martin Tett, the Local Government Association’s Housing spokesman, said:
“Every instance of homelessness is an individual tragedy – this rise in homelessness, which means that councils are currently housing more than 79,000 homeless families and in excess of 123,000 homeless children in temporary accommodation, is deeply worrying.
“Councils are determined to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place and do all they can to support families. Rising homelessness demonstrates the need for the duties that the Homelessness Reduction Act imposed on councils are fully funded and resourced.
“The people caught up in our homelessness crisis can’t afford for us to wait. It’s now crucial that we take the serious measures that are needed to get towards our collective ambition to end homelessness outright. We need the full range of public bodies to cooperate with councils when it comes to tackling homelessness and ultimately, we need to ensure all councils are able to borrow to build the new homes that are needed to address our housing shortage, and adapt welfare reforms to prevent people from losing their home where possible.”