COMMENT In London alone, the homelessness total stands at 56,500, with 75% of this made up of families with young children. Over the next 12 months, thanks to the rising cost of living and the falling number of available and fit-for-purpose temporary accommodation, this figure is expected to almost double to more than 100,000.
In addition, some 2.8m people live in substandard temporary accommodation across the UK. By definition, substandard can mean cold and draughty, faulty utilities, leaks – or it could mean hazardous.
Disappointingly, nothing was said in the chancellor’s Autumn Statement about affordable or social housing save for the 7% rental cap, which was some way above the suggested 3% touted by Michael Gove earlier this year and will still only help a handful of the nation’s worst-off.
Stem the tide
It’s clear that only collaboration between the private and public sector will stem the rise. There is a raft of institutions ploughing money into the PRS, but aimed mostly at the build-to-rent part of the market.
How about the government incentivises these same investors to help upgrade social, affordable or temporary accommodation as part of a fast track for their planning applications? Then everyone wins.
In the meantime, we are calling on the private sector up and down the country to think about how they can help. Whether it’s upgrading one property or 100. We must all do our bit.
Last week we partnered with London’s homelessness organisation Capital Letters to provide a tech solution to automate maintenance and repairs for its accommodation for families otherwise living on the capital’s streets.
Not only does this ensure the accommodation is fit for purpose, it means more accommodation is available to families in desperate need, more quickly, and it frees up the organisation to reach more people now they do not have to deal with the administrative onboarding of families nor the repairs logistics. This is all done by us quickly, responsibly and transparently.
Over the past three years, Capital Letters has housed more than 4,000 families. We hope the coming year means it can reach more and we can stem the tide amid the current crisis.
If more partnerships can be made in the coming months – not just in London but across the UK – then we as an industry have more opportunity to make a real step change together.
Steven Rae is chief executive of EVO Property Management
