Tag Archives: homelessness

• Record high numbers living in temporary accommodation as Lib Dems call on govt to end homelessness this Parliament
• Ed Davey calls for boost for unpaid carers as figures show one in four not in work
• Cole-Hamilton pens letter to former Conservative voters urging them to abandon party
• 1 in 9 Scots report mental health condition
• 627,700 unpaid carers in Scotland
• Cole-Hamilton comments on further Creative Scotland funding delay

Record high numbers living in temporary accommodation as Lib Dems call on govt to end homelessness this Parliament

The number of families living in temporary accommodation has reached a record high, the latest homelessness statistics have revealed, while there has been a 14.2% rise in rough sleeping.

The number of households reported in temporary accommodation reached 117,450 in March 2024 – the highest figure since these records began in 1998. This includes a 14.7% rise in the number of households with children living in temporary accommodation taking the total to 74,530.

There were also large increases last year in the number of households owed homelessness support by their local authority. Local authorities made 94,280 main homelessness duty decisions in 2023-24 – up by 25.1% on 2022-23.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to publish a cross-Whitehall plan to end all forms of homelessness within this Parliament. The party said that the plans should include more support for councils to tackle the shocking rise in the number of people in temporary accommodation.

Responding to the latest figures, Liberal Democrat Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson, Vikki Slade MP said:

It is heartbreaking to think that so many families and children will be on the streets or without a place to call home this winter.

For years, the previous Conservative government chose to ignore the thousands that are rough sleeping and broke their promise to ban no fault evictions.

The new government must address this awful situation as a matter of urgency and that starts by publishing a cross-Whitehall plan to end all forms of homelessness within this Parliament.

This strategy must include more support for councils to tackle the shocking rise in families using temporary accommodation. No longer should we see people forced to sleep rough and unable to access the support they need.

Ed Davey calls for boost for unpaid carers as figures show one in four not in work

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey will call on the government to boost support for unpaid carers, on a visit to a charity that supports children and young adults with Down syndrome and those who care for them.

It comes as House of Commons Library research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed unpaid carers are a sixth less likely to be employed, with one in four classed as ‘economically inactive’.

The data reveals that just 50% of ‘adult informal carers’ were in employment compared to 60% of all adults, making them a sixth less likely to be employed. Disturbingly, the data also showed that informal carers were a third more likely to be ‘permanently sick/disabled’ than the rest of the population, with almost one in 10 unpaid carers classified to be so.