A London borough is sending letters to thousands of people living in temporary accommodation warning they may be moved out of the capital to places like Coventry and Scunthorpe because rents have become unsustainable.
Redbridge has launched its “Home Truths” campaign after its short-term housing bill for families increasingly unable to afford rocketing costs reached £52million last year.
The council said that the crisis means there are simply are not enough affordable homes in the borough for locals.
It has over 8,000 people on its council house waiting list and there is a 16-year wait for a three-bedroom property. Average family home rents are over £2,000.
The local authority is now in the process of scheduling appointments for some 3,000 households who live in temporary accommodation to discuss moving them into a permanent home, which it says may be need to be outside the borough and the capital.
So far it is has found properties for 1,000 people in areas such as Coventry, Essex, the East Midlands and Scunthorpe where housing is cheaper.
Leader of the council Kam Rai told the Standard: “The system’s broken. You’ve got the several things going on at once. You’ve got the fact that rents are spiralling out of control. So people are continually finding themselves right on edge of being able to afford to pay rent.
“Councils are finding it increasingly difficult to actually build homes because the cost of building has gone through the roof. There has been an inflation crisis, cost living crisis and then every year councils lose more and more properties to right to buy.
“So in every way, you’re finding that the systems is stacked up against people who need housing, who need to rent. It really is becoming impossible.”
He added: “We fight tooth and nail to try and get our residents somewhere good to live and instinctively, we say let’s find them somewhere local.
“But we have to be honest with ourselves… those days have gone where somebody could come in and we could say, right, you’re entitled £1000 a month housing benefit, and the rent here is £950 no problem. I wish we could do things like that, but we can’t.”
It comes as an increasing number of London boroughs issue warnings about the strain the housing crisis is putting on their budgets.
The town hall said it is facing “considerable financial pressures” because of its temporary accommodation bill and without support it “could face an unprecedented budget gap of £175 million” by 2026.
The east London borough is supporting around 6,500 families in temporary accommodation and has more than 38,000 households on its social housing waiting list.
Meanwhile Kingston council has rented out every room at the 4 star Kingston Lodge Hotel for a whole year to house the homeless as its temporary accommodation bill rockets.
And Greenwich council signed off spending up to £5million on hotel rooms for emergency housing as the number of homeless households in the borough hit a record high.
The new Labour government has promised a generation of new towns to “kickstart economic growth and get Britain building again”.
While the plans have been welcomed by local authorities, leaders in the capital say building will take too long to deal with a crisis that is already at breaking point.
Mr Rai argues that temporary accommodation is not good for anyone.
He says the homes are often very small and incredibly expensive in London and by finding homes outside families have the opportunity to build better lives with long-term affordable accommodation.
He added: “I’m hopeful that the government now is going to build the homes that they’ve committed to, but they’re not going to come overnight… We’re just trying to be honest with everybody and lay the reasons out [for moving out of London] rather than what we’ve done and what councils are doing too often, which is trying to shoehorn people into properties locally.”
