London, south-east house prices up homelessness

Official figures show rising house prices in London and the south-east has have sparked a sharp jump in the number of homeless people.

Councils in England have confirmed that over 57,000 homeless families were placed in temporary accommodation in September 2013, a figure eight percent higher than during the same period in 2012, the British daily The Guardian reported on Thursday.

More than two-thirds of these homeless families had children or pregnant women.

The figures also revealed homelessness increased by 13 percent in London between July 1 and September 30 this year, compared to the same quarter of 2012.

The data show that there are now 2,100 homeless families living in bed and breakfasts, the highest number for a decade.

“With a third of all new cases of homelessness coming from London, this shows the dark side of the capital’s housing boom. Soaring prices and increased demand combined with cuts to housing benefit are pushing people into homelessness,” said Leslie Morphy, chief executive officer of Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people.

“They are falling out of the private rented sector at an accelerating rate and, if they are lucky, joining the growing numbers in temporary accommodation, whilst growing numbers of others deemed ‘not a priority’ are left to fend for themselves,” Morphy added.

“We need the government to address the chronic lack of affordable housing, to take real steps to improve the private rented sector and to urgently consider the impact its housing benefit cuts are having, particularly in the capital,” she noted.

In a recent letter to the British Medical Journal, a group of public health experts warned that hunger in Britain has reached the level of a “public health emergency” and the government may be covering up the extent to which austerity and welfare cuts are adding to the problem.

“This (food poverty) has all the signs of a public health emergency that could go unrecognized until it is too late to take preventive action,” the health experts said in the letter.