New government figures show that 177,530 children in England were living in temporary accommodation between January and March 2026, a 5% increase on the previous year and the 18th consecutive quarterly rise. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government also reported that the total number of households in temporary accommodation rose by nearly 4% over the same period, even as the number of households placed in bed and breakfasts fell.
Romesha, 31, has lived in temporary housing with her two sons since 2024 after a no-fault eviction left her unable to afford private rent, compounded by social landlords requiring guarantors she could not provide. She described the impact on her family in stark terms.
Living in temporary accommodation has taken a huge toll on my family.
How has this affected one family?
Romesha's family spent seven weeks in a bed and breakfast, exceeding the statutory six-week limit, without adequate cooking facilities or a fridge to store her younger son's medication. She is a registered carer for that child, who has type one diabetes and other complex needs, and said the repeated moves between temporary homes have been especially hard for him to process.
The disruption has also reached into her older son's education. His brother's glucose monitor beeps overnight in their small flat, waking him and interrupting revision for his GCSEs.
He tried his best to do all the revision he could, but I felt really bad because there was nothing that I could do apart from giving alternatives like studying at a friend's house, or going to the library.
It was very difficult for him to study at home.
What is driving the rise?
Section 21 "no-fault" evictions, long identified as a major contributor to homelessness, were banned from May 2026. Romesha, however, argued that the ban does not address the underlying issue.
Section 21 is not the problem.
My issue is the government allowing landlords to skyrocket rental prices, which are not in line with salaries.
The Labour government has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes in England during this Parliament but is currently behind that target. Sarah Elliot, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said the figures reflect a longer-term failure in housing policy.
It is shameful that a record number of children are growing up without a home because decades of political failure have choked off the supply of genuinely affordable social homes.
Right now, too many children are spending their childhoods in temporary accommodation that is barely fit for a one-night stay, let alone years on end.
Whole families are crammed into B&Bs, hostels and tiny bedsits that are freezing and damp in the winter and boiling in the summer.
These figures follow a broader pattern of housing insecurity documented elsewhere. A separate account described how a mother fled with her daughter into a year of hidden homelessness in Margate, while reporting on rising homelessness among people over 55 pointed to soaring rents and benefit freezes as compounding pressures. Separately, analysis has found that 7.4 million households are struggling to afford essentials, underscoring the financial strain many families face alongside housing instability.
How do these figures compare with other data?
Other sources put the scale of the crisis in slightly different terms. A parliamentary committee report found that more than 164,000 homeless children were living in temporary accommodation across England, with the problem most heavily concentrated in London and the South East. The same committee estimated that almost 90,000 children in London alone are in temporary accommodation, and that roughly one in 21 children in the capital is affected.
Government statistics for July to September 2025 had already shown 175,990 dependent children and 134,760 households in temporary accommodation, both record highs at the time, according to the official statutory homelessness release. Shelter has separately calculated that one in three households in temporary accommodation, some 43,040 in total, have been placed outside their home area, according to a Shelter press statement. The charity Justlife has meanwhile reported that 85,730 households in temporary accommodation include dependent children, making up 63.6% of all such households, according to its own analysis of the figures.
What about deaths linked to temporary accommodation?
A child mortality report compiled by the Shared Health Foundation and the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit found that 140 children died while temporary accommodation was their main residence between October 2023 and September 2025, according to the joint child mortality report. The finding adds a further dimension to concerns about the health impact of prolonged stays in unsuitable housing, echoed in earlier reporting on young people's experiences of homelessness in Wales.
In the year to March, the total number of households placed in bed and breakfasts fell by almost a quarter, and the number of households with children in B&Bs fell by half. About 1,000 households with children had stayed in B&B accommodation beyond the six-week limit, though this too was down on the previous year.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner acknowledged progress on B&B placements but stressed the scale of the problem that remains.
While it's welcome that more households are being helped into a home and fewer families are living in bed and breakfast accommodation, these figures show there is still a long way to go, with record numbers stuck in temporary accommodation.
In his first speech as prime minister, Andy Burnham described the situation as a housing crisis and pledged what he called the biggest council house-building programme since the postwar period. Shelter has urged him to use October's Budget to remove financial barriers preventing councils from building more homes for social rent, framing it as an opportunity to deliver on that promise. The government has also committed an additional £340m to tackling rough sleeping.
What happens next?
The next scheduled statutory homelessness statistics release covers the period October to December 2025. According to the government's published bulletin for that quarter, the figure had already reached 176,130 children in temporary accommodation, a record at the time and just below the 177,530 now reported for January to March 2026, suggesting the upward trend has continued into the most recent quarter covered here.
- 177,530 children were living in temporary accommodation in England between January and March 2026, up 5% year-on-year.
- This marks the 18th consecutive quarterly increase in child homelessness figures.
- Households in bed and breakfast accommodation fell by almost a quarter over the year, with those containing children down by half.
- A parliamentary committee found almost 90,000 homeless children in London alone, with one in 21 children in the capital affected.
- 140 children died while living in temporary accommodation between October 2023 and September 2025, according to a joint mortality report.
