What London's B&B bill tells us about the housing market

Sign of the times:  Councils' use of Bed & Breakfasts as temporary accommodation remains high. Image: TripAdvisor.com

Yesterday I found myself working for thinkpublic on a research project exploring people's experiences of homelessness. It's still early days for the project so I can't say too much about the fine-detail of the project. I can however share with you my thoughts on a an interesting (by Policy standards, anyway) fact I learned.

Fact of the day

I learned that one London local authority spent approximately £300,000 last year on nightly paid or 'Bed & Breakfast' temporary accommodation for homeless people. If this sounds like a lot of money that's because it is. And yet compared to neighbouring boroughs, this authority is actually pretty good at placing its homeless residents in more appropriate and more cost effective forms of temporary accommodation.

High times living in the city

The high figure for Bed & Breakfast payments is, in large part, an expression of the pressures the London housing market is under. It doesn't take a genius to work out that demand for housing in London vastly outstrips supply. This means private landlords can nearly always find people with jobs ready to snap up their rental properties. Local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to persuade private landlords to lease their properties on a long-term basis for use as temporary accommodation. Consequently, local authorities are finding that the feel there is no other option available to them other than to rely on more expensive, short term Bed & Breakfast accommodation.



Re-framing the problem: a nation of Bed & Breakfast guests?

At this point  in a post the optimist in me would normally swing into gear and begin to talk about the opportunities which undoubtedly exist for local authorities to improve the way they purchase and manage temporary accommodation to both reduce costs and improve outcomes for individuals and families (Bed & Breakfast accommodation has long been recognised as being a less than ideal option for families, due to the disruption it causes and often the lack of adequate space/facilities for children and, indeed, the previous Labour Government introduced a target to end the placement of families in this this form of accommodation.. While it is very important we take action in this area, I'd like instead to leave you with some thoughts on what I feel the £300,0000 Bed & Breakfast figure says about our housing market as a whole and the need for radical change.

1. Although the £300,000 figure for Bed & Breakfast is attention-grabbing, it is largely a predictable, market-forces driven response to the chronic over-demand/under-supply of housing rather than an operational issue. The same is true of the eye-watering amounts spent on Housing Benefit. These figures show that the failure of the housing market exacts a cost on us all, whether or not we are in direct housing need.

2. The Coalition's policies are, in my view, primarily focusing on attacking the symptoms rather than the underlying causes of the housing crisis. Putting aside ethical concerns over the impact on families and communities, in the long term measures such as reducing the amount paid in Housing Benefit and plans for a cap on the total amount of benefits any one family can receive may begin to exert some downward pressure on costs. They will not, however, address the fundamental problem of a lack of supply.

3. Instead of responding to the figure of £300, 000 for Bed & Breakfast by demanding immediate cost costing, we should be spurred on to think radically about how we meet people's housing needs in future. Particularly in London, we cannot simply build our way out of the problem. Even if there was political and public consensus on the substantial investment required, we would quickly run up against physical limits on building more houses. Recognising the limits of traditional approaches, we can begin to explore new ways of living that reflect the realities of our society. I'm not going to pretend that this will be easy but, in the same way that there have been pubic conversations over retirement and social care, I think we need to have a more open discussion on housing and 'the art of the possible'.

Overcoming the online echo chamber

I read the other day an interesting article on Slate which explored the belief that the Internet can create an online echo chamber, with us increasingly only hearing the views of people similar to us. In the interests of avoiding this, I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on housing, particularly in London.
 
Do we need to re-think our housing expectations? In response to the pressures on housing is it time to think radically about how we design and allocate housing? Or maybe you think we'd all be better off if we embraced B&B accommodation?

You can comment below or get in touch by email: clarke.francisg@gmail or on Twitter: @francisclarke