On Wednesday, the government announced how it would allocate the £1bn it earmarked in the Budget to tackle the housing crisis, which it says is “the worst in living memory”.
While almost £200m will be spent tackling rough sleeping and investing in drug and alcohol services for homeless people, the bulk of the money, £633m, will be spent trying to prevent homelessness and paying for temporary accommodation.
The challenge is underlined in Freedom of Information (FOI) data shared exclusively with the from housing charity Shelter, which shows a record one primary school child in every 84 in England will be homeless this Christmas.
That number rises to one in 24 in London – the equivalent to one child in every classroom.
“That’s having an absolutely devastating impact on their health, their mental health and their education,” Mairi MacRae, head of policy at Shelter says.
