Families let down on cheap housing

The need for more cheap housing for rent has been highlighted by figures published by the Liberal Democrats, who have accused the Government of letting down thousands of families without a permanent roof over their heads.

Nationally, the number of households in temporary accommodation doubled between 1997 and 2007 from 43,000 to 86,000.

Julia Goldsworthy, the party’s communities spokesman, said the problem had been caused in part by a 10 per cent fall in the amount of available social housing since Labour came to power.

She said: “Thousands of families have been let down by Labour, leaving them without a permanent roof over their heads. Every one of these households is a family, often living in unacceptable conditions.

“The real problem here is the lack of social housing to rent.”

A Government spokesman said it had strengthened legislation to provide one of the strongest safety nets in the world for homeless people to help many more people that would have simply been ignored under the old system. We have reduced rough sleeping by 73 per cent since 1998 and are ending the scandal of homeless families with children having to live in cramped B&B hotels for long periods, and we have set the challenging target to halve the number of people living in temporary accommodation by 2010.”

He added: “We know there’s still much more to do to help families into settled homes, which is why we’re putting £10.4 billion into more social and affordable homes.”

Date article online: 07/05/2008