Nearly 4,000 children are living in temporary accommodation in Wandsworth, with families waiting an average of three and a half years for a permanent home, shocking new council figures reveal.
Papers presented to the Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee this week expose the scale of the borough’s homelessness emergency, with the council now spending £37.5 million annually on temporary housing – and still overshooting its budget by more than £5 million.
But despite the escalating crisis, the council’s 34-page report [pdf] contains no strategy to address it. There is no analysis of what is causing homelessness, no assessment of which interventions work, and no targets for reducing numbers or waiting times. The document reads as a description of a crisis the council is observing rather than one it is actively trying to solve.
The report meticulously catalogues the problem: 4,592 households in temporary accommodation, 3,947 children affected, single mothers heading 29% of homeless families, Black residents making up 31% of those in temporary housing despite being around 13% of the borough’s population.
What it does not provide is any plan to fix it.
There is no breakdown of where homeless families are coming from – which wards, which circumstances, which landlords are evicting them. There is no examination of what interventions might prevent homelessness or move families into permanent housing faster. There is no target date by which the council hopes to reduce these numbers.
Instead, the report emphasises the legal framework that requires councils to house homeless families, and the financial pressures this creates. The framing positions Wandsworth as a passive victim of national housing failure rather than a local authority with policy choices to make.
Other councils facing similar pressures have experimented with prevention programmes, landlord incentive schemes, property acquisitions, and housing association partnerships. Wandsworth’s report examines none of these approaches.
Years in limbo
The human cost of this reactive approach is measured in years. Families who were finally rehoused in 2024/25 had spent an average of 43 months – nearly four years – in temporary accommodation. Current occupants have already waited an average of 27 months, with no end in sight.
“Temporary accommodation is intended to be short-term housing,” the council’s own report acknowledges. “For many families, life in temporary accommodation is far from ‘temporary’, being placed in temporary accommodation for long periods without an offer of a more settled home.”
Nearly half of all homeless families have been placed outside Wandsworth entirely:
- 52.6% remain in-borough (2,185 households)
- 30.2% are placed elsewhere in London (1,253 households)
- 14.4% are in adjoining boroughs (597 households)
- 2.8% have been moved outside London altogether (117 households)
For the 117 families sent outside the capital, this can mean children changing schools, parents losing jobs, and support networks being severed – all while nominally remaining Wandsworth’s responsibility.
The bill keeps rising
The financial trajectory is alarming. Last year the council spent £31.1m on temporary accommodation and overshot its budget by £5.3m. This year, spending is forecast to hit £37.5m – a 20% increase – with another £5.2m overspend expected.
Government grants cover just £8.9m of this year’s costs, leaving council taxpayers to fund the remaining £28.6m.
Concerningly, the fastest-growing category is also the most expensive. “Nightly paid” accommodation – typically commercial hotels and B&Bs – has increased by 22% in just twelve months, from 1,665 to 2,047 households. Meanwhile, the council’s own properties and cheaper private leasing arrangements have barely grown or even shrunk.
The council’s presentation to councillors referenced Parliamentary research documenting the damage temporary accommodation inflicts on children: disrupted schooling, poor attendance, inability to bring friends home, lack of space for homework or play, health problems from poor-quality housing, and mental health impacts including anxiety and sleep deprivation.
Yet no plan exists to reduce the number of children experiencing this.
Who is affected
The demographics reveal who bears the burden:
By household type:
- Single females with children: 1,081 (29%)
- Couples with children: 608 (16%)
- Single males with children: 118 (3%)
By ethnicity:
- Black (all groups): 31%
- White (all groups): 21%
- Asian (all groups): 15%
By bedroom need:
- Studio/1 bed: 2,178 households
- 2 bed: 1,195 households
- 3 bed: 807 households
- 4+ bed: 406 households
The 139 families needing five or more bedrooms face an almost impossible wait – such properties barely exist in the social housing stock.
