Eighty children died while living in temporary accommodation in England last year, shocking new figures that highlight the impact of homelessness have revealed.
Analysis from a group of MPs also shows that, over the past five years, 74 children have died with temporary accommodation listed as a possible contributing factor to their vulnerability, ill health or death.
Fifty-eight of these children were aged under one, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Households in Temporary Accommodation found.
Dame Siobhain McDonagh, chair of the APPG, described the figures as “shocking”.
Big Issue founder Lord John Bird, said the numbers were “a shameful tragedy” as he called on the government to “urgently move away from this sticking plaster solution to homelessness”.
In total between October 2023 and September last year, 80 children died while living in temporary accommodation such as hotels and B&Bs, according to the National Child Mortality Database. This accounted for three per cent of the total number of child deaths during that period.
Dr Laura Neilson, chief executive of Shared Health, which examines the impact of poverty on people’s health, said: “We know that if you repeatedly move a child or baby, place them in accommodation without a cot or cooking facilities and disconnect a family from support, the chance of death is increased.
“The result is the deaths of 74 children that, outside of temporary accommodation, would still be alive.”
The Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) process assesses the circumstances of such deaths, including whether temporary accommodation was a contributing factor.
The APPG said there was a disproportionate number of children from deprived areas represented in the figures, while children from non-white families were also over-represented, accounting for 38 per cent of deaths across the five-year period despite making up only 27 per cent of the population.
Dame Siobhain added: “Seventy-four children have died in five years with temporary accommodation contributing to their death. That is more than one every month. How shocking is that? In the fifth largest economy in the world.
“Last year, the APPG I chair was successful in getting the Homelessness Code of Guidance changed to include cots for homeless families. This guidance needs to be made law to ensure that deaths in temporary accommodation is zero.”
The latest official figures, published in December by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), showed there were 123,100 households in England in temporary accommodation in the three months to the end of June 2024 - a rise of 16.3 per cent on the same period the previous year.
There were 159,380 children in temporary accommodation between April and June 2024, those statistics showed.
Deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, Angela Rayner, said: “These truly shocking findings break my heart. No family should ever have to endure such a tragic loss of life and be failed by the very system there to protect them.
“No child should be forced to grow up in unsafe and frankly appalling conditions and that is why we are taking urgent action to right the wrongs of the past.
“We will fix the current system that has left far too many families trapped in temporary accommodation with no end in sight and end homelessness for good by tackling the root causes and driving up housing standards.
“This year alone we are providing the largest-ever cash boost in homelessness prevention services, with nearly £1 billion for councils, to stop families becoming homeless in the first place and provide them with safe, secure and stable housing so they can rebuild their lives. This is part of our long-term plan to turn the tide and end homelessness once and for all.”
