GPs and teachers to be told when kids become homeless as part of Labour's child poverty strategy

Labour has vowed to end the use of bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation and will introduce a legal duty for GPs and teachers to be notified when children become homeless as part of its child poverty strategy.

Prime minister Keir Starmer said the “cost of doing nothing is too high” as the government delivered the long-awaited strategy today (5 December), just a week after chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the two-child benefit cap would be scrapped next April.

Children living in temporary accommodation, their families and local authorities have been feeling the cost of homelessness for some time.

A record 172,420 children are growing up in temporary accommodation as of June this year, according to official statistics. The 84,420 households with children in temporary accommodation has increased 7.5% in the last year alone.

The child poverty strategy will see Labour end the unlawful placement of families in B&Bs beyond the six-week legal limit. The government also pledged to invest £950 million in delivering 5,000 high-quality homes for temporary accommodation by 2030.

A new legal duty will also inform health and education providers when children are experiencing homelessness to create a joined-up approach to provide support. Ministers also plan to work with the NHS to end mothers with newborns from being discharged to B&Bs and other unsuitable homes.

Matt Downie, Crisis chief executive, welcomed the measures and said Labour’s upcoming homelessness strategy must tackle the reasons why children face life in temporary accommodation in the first place.

“It is absolutely right that government is setting out an ambition to deliver the largest reduction in child poverty since records began. We back them to the hilt on this,” said Downie, who criticised the government for failing to unfreeze housing benefit for renters at last week’s budget.

“The way this country treats its children is the fundamental measure of the fair society the government says it wants to create.  

“What we need to see – and what we hope will be set out in the upcoming homelessness strategy – is a plan to tackle the underlying causes that are pushing children into homelessness at record-high levels. Much of this comes down to housing affordability. This is at the root of so many of these problems and has yet to be addressed by the government.”

Labour has made progress on B&Bs

While homelessness statistics released last week found the number of homeless households has stagnated in England under Labour, the government has seen progress in reducing the use of bed and breakfast accommodation.

B&Bs are considered among the worst forms of accommodation for homeless families because of limited access to essential facilities for things like cooking and laundry.

Labour introduced an emergency reduction pilot across 20 local authorities that have the highest use of B&Bs in England last year.

The most recent statistics showed that the number of families in B&Bs beyond the legal limit of six weeks has been declining since June 2024.

Of the record-high number of households in temporary accommodation, 14,250 were living in B&B accommodation, down 22.4% from the same time last year. These accounted for 10.8% of all households in temporary accommodation, down 4.2%.

The number of households in B&B accommodation with children decreased 43.5% from the same time last year to 3,340 households.

Just over 2,000 households with children in B&B accommodation had been resident for more than the statutory limit of six weeks. This is down 45.1% from the peak of 3,770 in June 2024.

The child poverty strategy will see the government invest £8m to extend the reduction pilots for the next three years.

Sarah Elliott, Shelter chief executive, said: “We wholly agree with the government that living in temporary accommodation has a devastating impact on children’s lives. No child should be growing up in a B&B or mouldy bedsit.”

But Elliott called on ministers to focus on building social rent homes to lift children out of homelessness altogether. Labour announced a £39 billion social and affordable housing programme earlier this year to prioritise on delivering social rent homes over the next decade.

Elliott added: “Improving temporary accommodation will only ever be a sticking plaster solution. We need to get children out of temporary accommodation altogether and into a permanent home.”

Read more:

• Cost of housing homeless people in temporary accommodation soars to £2.8bn
• Croydon family spends staggering 9,500 days in so-called temporary accommodation
• This is the reality of life in temporary accommodation at Christmas: ‘Where would we put a tree?’

Doctors and teachers to get notification system

Currently, GPs and teachers are not told when a child becomes homeless and moves into temporary accommodation.

That’s despite the move potentially having a big impact on a child’s life. Unsuitable accommodation could have an impact on their health while they may have moved further away from school meaning they are more likely to be late, miss school or forced to move school altogether. 

A total of 41, 250 households in temporary accommodation as of March this year were placed outside their local area.

Campaigners have long called for a notification system to inform GPs and teachers when a child becomes homeless.

Labour rejected an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill from MPs on the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on temporary accommodation to introduce one.

But the child poverty strategy will now bring in a legal duty to introduce the notification system to enable more joined-up support.

Dr Laura Neilson, chief executive of the Shared Health Foundation, which is co-secretariat of the APPG, said: “We are delighted that the government is committing practical measures to reduce the impact of homelessness on children and are encouraged at the changes announced today.

“Children living in temporary accommodation is a national scandal and needs to be consigned to history. All children should have somewhere safe to live, access to education and support. We encourage ministers to ensure that all actions announced today are implemented with urgency. We look forward to working closely with ministers and the sector.”

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