0:02

This is a Global Player original

0:04

podcast. This is

0:06

The News Agents Investigates.

0:13

The 18th of this month will make me

0:15

two years staying in a hotel. It's hard.

0:19

It's one room for all of us. Really

0:21

hard as God's school. And a baby. We

0:23

have one room with the four of us

0:25

in there. It's very

0:28

difficult. We are living

0:30

in a single room and I don't know

0:32

where they're gonna send me if

0:34

I go to a house. We are

0:36

there for seven months now and they

0:39

don't even tell you anything. If

0:42

I go, obviously I'll be

0:44

homeless with four kids. But

0:47

the first day still, it's compromising

0:49

my work and my studies. I didn't

0:52

want to come here. I

0:54

really didn't want to come here. But

0:56

I have no choice. Every

0:59

day I always be crying. Because

1:02

it's difficult. We don't

1:05

know anything. It's hard. Could

1:08

you live with your whole family in

1:10

a single room? Maybe with a

1:12

shared kitchen which you share with a few other

1:14

families. Maybe a shared bathroom too.

1:17

How long could you do it for? A day? A

1:20

week? A month? How long could

1:22

you go by before you could seriously think

1:24

of it as home? Could you

1:26

ever? More

1:29

and more of our fellow citizens in Britain are

1:32

having to do just that. We

1:34

all know there's a housing crisis. We

1:36

should know that it's probably the biggest

1:38

political policy failure of the British state

1:40

over the last 30 years or more.

1:42

But beyond the tents showing up on

1:44

more and more of Britain's streets, as

1:47

bad as that is, there is a

1:49

hidden crisis just out of view. One

1:51

which has come to affect over 140,000 children with no permanent home to

1:54

call their own. in

2:00

temporary accommodation, which evermore

2:02

is anything but. This

2:06

is Britain's temporary accommodation crisis, one

2:08

which not only threatens personal ruin

2:10

for the life chances of so

2:13

many kids, but one which is

2:15

threatening to break at already creaking

2:17

local governments, schools and social services.

2:20

Welcome to News Agents Investigates.

2:32

So we've come to Peckham in South

2:34

London to the Harris Academy. Peckham Harris

2:36

Academy is a chain of schools. They

2:39

teach thousands and thousands of kids across London and

2:42

beyond. And this in a way, in this

2:44

borough, the London Borough of Southwark, it's kind

2:47

of ground zero of this crisis, the temporary

2:49

accommodation crisis. More

2:51

and more of their kids in their schools do

2:53

not have a home to call their

2:55

own. And we're going to talk to the teachers here,

2:57

some of the staff here, to

3:00

get a sense of just how profoundly

3:02

that affects a kid's education and ultimately

3:04

their life chances as well. We've

3:08

been certainly in the last four

3:10

or five years experienced a growing

3:12

number of students

3:14

living in temporary accommodation, particularly in

3:17

central London. Sudan Moynihan is

3:19

the CEO of the Harris Federation, which

3:21

runs 54 schools in London

3:23

and Essex. That accommodation is overcrowded

3:26

sometimes. You can have a whole family living

3:28

in a room. It can

3:30

be inadequate accommodation, which can't be heated

3:32

properly, accommodation without

3:35

cooking facilities, or

3:37

living in cheap hotels where

3:40

children are having to share toilets and

3:42

kitchens with unknown adults and it's a

3:44

safeguarding risk. So there

3:46

are multiple issues of problems with

3:48

poor health, inability to find somewhere

3:50

to study, and sometimes youngsters are

3:52

travelling an hour or two hours

3:54

to get to school from accommodation

3:56

that's further away. Plus,

3:59

there is the inevitable... mental health

4:01

issue because the accommodation is by

4:03

definition temporary. And sometimes some families

4:06

can move day by day or

4:08

week by week to different accommodation.

4:10

And that's an incredibly stressful way

4:13

of living. Do you have any sense

4:15

just in your own schools about the figures and

4:17

the sort of numbers we might be talking about?

4:19

Yeah, I mean we've got a

4:21

primary school nearby in Peckham

4:23

where 50% of the families

4:26

are in temporary accommodation. Yes,

4:30

you heard it right. 50%

4:33

of all the kids at a London

4:35

school do not have a home to

4:37

call their own. They're in temporary accommodation,

4:39

housing usually a B&B or a hotel

4:41

or a room in a shared block

4:43

where the council puts you. Especially if

4:45

you're someone with kids when you have

4:47

nowhere else to go, lest you end

4:50

up with children begging on the streets.

4:52

Rocketing rents and housing costs have simply

4:54

broken the family finances of hundreds of

4:56

local people. And self-evidently the effect on

4:58

the education of the kids is

5:00

profound. The problems are very

5:02

practical so we'll have children who may,

5:05

certainly at the primary, who may have

5:07

travelled for two hours with their parents

5:09

to come to school. For four hours

5:11

every day. They're exhausted and

5:14

we will have parents who will hang

5:16

around in local cafes. Now the primary

5:18

has opened a warm room so they can wait during

5:20

the day because it's not worth their while going home.

5:23

We'll have youngsters at the secondaries who

5:25

will have travelled similar distances. We'll

5:27

have children coming in who are hungry

5:30

because they can't cook or the parents

5:32

haven't got the money for food. And

5:34

we're feeding children and

5:37

they can't cook in the evenings. We're providing

5:39

food often that doesn't need cooking that they

5:41

can take home and eat. They

5:43

can't wash sometimes so we provide washing machines

5:46

for some children so they can wash their

5:48

clothes. In school, in school

5:50

we provide facilities to shower. And

5:53

of course they've got that constant worry. Where are

5:55

they going to be living? And

5:57

we have a youngster in this school, for example,

5:59

who... who's in year 11 about to

6:01

take his GCSEs. Absolutely

6:03

important for any child in

6:05

terms of life chances. He's

6:08

been moved to Romford out in Essex.

6:10

He can't get to school. There's no

6:12

school provision for him in Romford. He's

6:14

out of lessons. He can't

6:17

travel here. That's the risk they face

6:19

in the back of their minds. Am

6:21

I going to be moved? Will I lose all of my

6:23

friends? What's going to happen? So just to focus

6:25

on the case of that child, he is

6:27

currently school-less. Without any

6:29

provision for his education at the moment, he's

6:31

been moved to a completely different part of

6:34

London about which he knows very little. No

6:36

friends. No possibility of getting any sort of

6:38

education whatsoever. And that's going to be devastating

6:40

for him potentially. Completely. Completely.

6:43

And we know, had he stayed with us, he

6:45

would have got good GCSEs and he would have been able

6:47

to stand on his own feet, get

6:50

into a sixth form and get a good job.

6:52

Now what's his fate? So his

6:54

life could have been completely transformed. Completely. And

6:56

that must be in the back of the minds of

6:58

all of these young people in that position. I

7:01

found that deeply disturbing. And

7:03

the perfect embodiment of why this crisis

7:06

is so, all-consuming, so debilitating. A working

7:08

class kid through no fault of their

7:10

own has their entire life chances potentially

7:12

blighted by a quirk of the system.

7:14

By being unfortunate enough to be a

7:17

victim of a housing shortage, of unaffordable

7:19

rents, maybe a bit of greed thrown

7:21

in, of state failure, and then of

7:23

a bureaucracy, which when a house finally

7:26

becomes available, pays no heed to the

7:28

wider needs of the child. Imagine

7:30

if the middle class has ever encountered anything like

7:32

this. The uproar there'd be. But

7:34

these are powerless people with quite literally

7:37

nowhere to go. Whilst we were

7:39

there, we got chatting to some of the

7:41

parents who do live in temporary accommodation, provided

7:43

by the local council. The first with three

7:45

kids at the school is Namanah. I'm

7:47

from Sierra Leone. I came here

7:50

second asylum. I'm

7:52

here now like two years. Thank

7:55

God I won my case, but I'm still

7:57

living in the hotel. So.

8:00

is kind of a bit difficult.

8:03

You've got two daughters and your son's over

8:05

there. And

8:09

you're living together in the hotel? Yeah

8:11

we are living in a single room. When

8:14

it comes to my kids studying especially

8:16

for my son he's in year 11.

8:19

He's doing his GCSEs? GCSE and I don't know where

8:22

they're gonna send me if I

8:25

go to a house. That's why he starts

8:27

to take me to Manchester. Obviously my

8:29

son will not be able to take the exam. That's

8:32

a difficult thing. So what you're worried

8:34

about is that the authorities

8:36

turn around and say okay we've got you a

8:38

house but it's miles and miles

8:41

and miles away. And Babson who

8:43

is in a very important year

8:45

he's without school he's moved to

8:47

school. Yeah because I've seen family left

8:49

the hotel they'll say oh my

8:52

children are not going to school at the moment. You

8:55

must feel very powerless. Yeah. Like

8:57

the power is in someone else's hands. Yeah

9:00

it's hard. Well I'm Louis

9:02

Manuel I'm from St Lucia. We

9:05

have one room with the four of us in there.

9:08

It's very difficult in

9:11

terms of the effect on your kids

9:14

living in one room and

9:16

trying to do their education at the same time.

9:19

That must be extremely extremely hard. I

9:22

don't have a word or something

9:24

to say about it. It's extremely difficult.

9:28

How long you been there? Yeah. We were

9:30

there for seven months now. Seven months.

9:33

And they don't even tell

9:35

you anything. So when

9:37

people say that there are people in the country you say

9:39

in Britain who say that people who

9:41

are asylum seekers who are seeking refugee

9:44

status in the UK you

9:46

live a life of luxury. You're given

9:48

anything you want. What would

9:50

you say to that? That's not true. Don't

9:53

believe everything you hear. It's

9:55

not true. When

9:58

you come out there you have to feel It's

10:01

very difficult being

10:03

asylum seeker in the UK. It's

10:05

hard. There's people who just don't like

10:07

you just because you're seeking asylum. They

10:10

don't even know your situation or why

10:13

you come out. Why did you come to

10:15

the UK? Because my family would

10:17

have been killed. That's why we're

10:19

out there. I wouldn't come to the...

10:21

If I come to the UK, it's location. I'm

10:25

a full-time chef. I do mechanical engineering

10:27

and I'm out there. I'm just sitting

10:29

in a house. I'm getting frustrated. I'm

10:31

losing my head. And

10:34

your kids presumably were very settled in St Lucia. They had

10:36

their life. Yeah, they cry every

10:38

single day for three months. They were just

10:40

crying. Because

10:42

we don't have a car. We don't have no

10:45

money. We don't have nothing. And

10:48

there's millions of people who don't even know where

10:50

we are. They know. They'll

10:53

kill us. I

10:57

didn't want to come here. I

10:59

really didn't want to come here. But

11:01

I had no choice. I could

11:04

lose my kids and my

11:06

partner every day. And I'd

11:09

be crying because

11:11

it's difficult. We don't

11:14

know anything. It's hard to

11:16

be in one place for all this

11:19

time. We

11:21

don't have anything. We don't have a life.

11:27

I don't even know what to do. It's

11:30

better at dying in my country than to come here

11:33

and suffer. Better

11:35

at dying. Well,

11:40

I found that, and I know the team with

11:42

me, found that really shocking and difficult

11:45

to listen to at times. And the

11:47

thing is, the stories that some of those

11:49

families were outlining, you

11:51

know, there are a thousand thousand of those stories.

11:53

That's just a small handful in just one school,

11:55

in one little corner of South London. And it's

11:57

not just a silent secret. who

12:00

were born here, working-class families all over the

12:02

country, not just London as well. The housing

12:04

crisis, indeed the housing catastrophe, that's what we

12:07

should call it, call it what it is,

12:10

is manifesting in all sorts of ways and

12:12

as you heard there is fusing with the

12:14

education crisis that's been building and building in

12:16

this country the last few years, especially since

12:18

Covid. It's even closing schools

12:20

wholesale. I mean I'm literally looking at the

12:23

primary school next door to the Harris Academy and

12:25

that's basically just had to close entirely and that

12:28

is no surprise at all when you consider that

12:30

houses just across the street which I'm looking at

12:32

from school guard park, I mean they're

12:34

going for a million pounds north of a million pounds

12:36

in an area of London which you know still has

12:38

its problems. What is going on is

12:41

a national scandal, it is a series

12:43

of national scandals and when working-class kids

12:45

don't have a home to call their

12:47

own, can't get the right teachers, can't

12:50

keep the teachers that have been guiding

12:52

them through their education, when the schools

12:54

that they're in are increasingly

12:56

at risk of being closed because there

12:58

aren't enough kids in them, what

13:01

hope do we really think there's going to be for

13:03

these kids and their life chances? At

13:07

this point I know what you're thinking, okay

13:09

this is bad for London, it's bad for

13:11

asylum seekers but this is a crisis which

13:13

is not just in the capital and not

13:16

just affecting the most vulnerable, it's people in

13:18

work quote-unquote normal families so we

13:20

need to zoom out a bit. To get

13:22

a sense of how significant a sleeper crisis

13:24

this now is for so many people. I

13:26

spoke to Charlie True from the housing charity

13:28

Shelter. So there are over 139,000 homeless

13:32

children right now and around about 100,000

13:34

homeless families. Those are people who are

13:36

largely living in temporary accommodation which might

13:38

be shoddy hostels, it might be bed

13:40

and breakfast etc. These people will be

13:43

living in some pretty terrible conditions, they

13:45

may have to share bathrooms with strangers,

13:47

there may not be enough room or

13:49

beds for everyone in that particular temporary

13:51

accommodation in their room. So what that

13:53

means is that kids can be kept

13:56

up late at night because they are

13:58

sharing a bed with their parents. parents, etc.

14:01

They may be late for school because they

14:03

are too tired from having been kept up

14:05

all night. These situations are absolutely terrible because

14:07

some of this temporary accommodation has damp and

14:10

mould all over the walls and it can

14:12

be a really horrible place to live miles

14:14

and miles away from people's schools and

14:17

from people's work. This is a huge problem

14:19

and it's a direct result of the failure

14:21

to build enough social rented homes that are

14:23

genuinely affordable for people. That's why we're seeing

14:25

so many families and so many people becoming

14:28

homeless. Can you just give us a flavour

14:30

or a sense of the sort of people who might be

14:33

in this situation, the sort of people that your organisation

14:35

deals with, the kind of situations that they're in, the

14:37

sort of places they end up? Absolutely.

14:39

I mean, it's actually ordinary families

14:41

at the moment. There are around 140,000

14:46

homeless kids right now because it's families

14:48

that were once privately renting. They've found

14:50

that they can't afford that and then

14:52

they go to the council and they

14:55

have to present as homeless because they've either

14:57

been evicted through a Section 21 notice, so

14:59

for no fault eviction, or they've had a

15:01

rent hike that they cannot afford, or simply

15:03

the cost of living has got to them.

15:05

What that means is that it's just ordinary,

15:07

normal families who were once secure, able to

15:10

kind of rent their own property in the private

15:12

rent sector that have found that when they need support,

15:14

there isn't any social housing for them to go to.

15:17

Ah, Section 21. Basically, no fault evictions.

15:19

You may have heard about it recently.

15:21

We have a bill. It's gone through

15:23

its stages in the House of Commons

15:26

and that bill does a number of things

15:28

to help people in the private rented sector,

15:30

including ending no fault evictions. The government was

15:33

committed from its 2019 manifesto

15:35

to abolish Section 21s by the end

15:37

of the Parliament. Yet just this

15:39

week, that commitment was drastically watered

15:42

down. Everything depends on the House

15:44

of Lords. So, my determination

15:46

is to ensure that we get this bill

15:48

on the statute book, but it's up to

15:50

the Lords to decide the... The

15:54

government says they're concerned the courts simply

15:56

don't have the capacity to deal with

15:58

the litigation that could arise from the...

16:00

abolition. But there is no doubt that

16:02

in an era where housing supply is

16:04

an enormous problem, a rental market in

16:07

most parts of the country out of

16:09

control, up 7% on average in the

16:11

last year alone, Section 21s have been

16:13

a major driver in the rise of

16:15

temporary accommodation to prevent homelessness. So

16:17

Section 21 notice is a no fault

16:20

eviction. Well that means that a landlord

16:22

can evict a tenant for no reason

16:24

with just two months notice. It's

16:27

one of the leading causes of homelessness at the

16:29

moment because that instability for tenants pays. It means

16:31

they can be kicked out at a moment's notice

16:33

and two months is not enough time for someone

16:35

to find a new home basically.

16:38

What that means is that that is

16:40

contributing significantly towards people's instability and potentially

16:42

causing a lot of homelessness at the

16:44

moment. What we need to see is

16:47

though Section 21 notices banned and

16:49

other reforms to the private rented sector so

16:51

that renters have security of their home and

16:54

can afford a decent place to live because

16:56

home is the foundation they desperately need and

16:58

we need to make sure that that rented

17:00

sector is professional. So one of the reasons

17:02

that it has become a leading

17:06

driver of homelessness at the

17:08

moment presumably is because we

17:10

are in a housing market and a

17:12

rental market in particular which is very

17:15

fast where rents are going up, landlords

17:18

sometimes because they have no choice because of mortgage rent

17:20

but also sometimes maybe because they think they can get

17:22

more money and they can evict

17:25

people as you say without any

17:27

reason in order to do so. So one of

17:29

the things that tends to happen is either people

17:31

get evicted through Section 21 or they get evicted

17:33

because the landlord raises the rent and

17:35

that effectively means that they can't afford that new rent and

17:37

they get moved on. What landlords tell us through

17:40

a survey in fact that we've done is

17:42

that when they raise the rent it's often

17:44

actually because their letting agent advises

17:46

them to do so so it's essentially just moving

17:48

in line with what the market is doing. Obviously

17:51

some landlords will need to raise rent because of

17:53

you know they've had a mortgage increase etc and

17:55

that's caused a problem but in the majority of

17:57

cases a lot of them do not go. actually

18:00

have a mortgage and that is not necessarily

18:02

the main reason why they're raising the rent.

18:06

This is a show about temporary accommodation. So

18:08

I don't want to get too sidetracked about

18:10

rising rents per se, but it is a

18:13

show centered fundamentally around kids, working class kids

18:15

in particular, and how they're getting screwed over

18:17

by forces, either personal or political, outside their

18:19

control. So before we go to a break,

18:22

I could not bring you this, a separate

18:24

part of our conversation with our head in

18:26

Peckham, a reminder about how housing is at

18:29

the center of so many of our social

18:31

ills. And to remember the next time you

18:33

hear a politician say that they want to

18:35

cut immigration, when they don't tell you

18:37

how they're going to fix housing, that it's all

18:40

a bit of a con. The housing

18:42

crisis in London, in this part of London, is

18:45

manifesting itself in other ways for you as well,

18:47

right? In a sense that presumably you are also

18:50

finding it very difficult to recruit teachers because even

18:52

though, you know, relative to a lot of the

18:54

families you're talking about, they're on far better incomes,

18:56

they're struggling. And also, you've got

18:59

actual school population crisis as well, in the

19:01

sense that few and few kids just live

19:03

around here. Yeah. Yeah.

19:05

So nationally, there's a shortage of teachers.

19:07

I think the recruitment in teacher training this

19:09

year is only 50% of

19:12

the target that's needed. And

19:14

costs of living in London are very high, as you know, and

19:16

a teacher can move out of London. And

19:19

although the starting salary I think in London

19:21

has been raised to $30,000, you

19:23

can move out of London, costs are a

19:25

fraction, and you might lose $3,000 or $4,000.

19:27

So economically, it makes sense

19:30

for teachers to be outside London. And,

19:32

you know, we've tried to find ways

19:34

to build teacher housing, we've been unsuccessful

19:36

in that. But one consequence is we

19:38

now go abroad to recruit teachers. And

19:41

remember, we're a group with a really

19:43

good reputation. We're triple the national rate

19:45

for numbers of outstanding schools. But

19:48

we go to Jamaica every year

19:50

to recruit teachers, particularly in sciences and

19:52

maths and English and history.

19:55

And we're bringing in 50 to

19:57

80 Jamaican teachers a year. And

20:00

for them it's a good move because they

20:02

get paid more here and there's

20:04

a tax break in the first two years. But

20:06

for us, we wouldn't have staff in front of some

20:08

of our classes unless we were able to do it.

20:11

It's the housing issue as well as the general cost of living.

20:14

You have to go to Jamaica to recruit over

20:16

50 teachers a year just to keep

20:18

your classes staffed. Absolutely.

20:21

You have no other choice? No. We've

20:23

got great schools with a great reputation

20:25

with really good discipline and great results,

20:28

but the people aren't there. We'll be back just

20:30

after this. The

20:33

News Agents Investigates. This

20:41

is The News Agents Investigates.

20:43

It's

20:47

a real morrow in this place, isn't it? It really is.

20:50

So they've got their own kitchen, oven, and a

20:54

plate on three as well. Trailways

20:56

is a hostel for homeless families provided

20:58

by Exeter City Council. It's a decent

21:01

place, clean, well-run, friendly staff. It used

21:03

to be a hotel and you can

21:05

feel it in its layout, its rooms

21:07

with ensuites and faded artwork. It's a

21:10

lifeline, but for many people here, it

21:12

becomes their lives. This room's just

21:14

been freshly decorated because we have a family in

21:17

here that were in here for a little while.

21:19

It's all freshly decorated before someone moves in. And

21:23

then, plenty of covers for this, but in

21:25

here, we supply all

21:27

the cutlery, crockery. But sometimes people come

21:29

and they haven't got anything. No. And

21:33

you do have some people that don't like to move. Don't

21:35

like to move? They get used to it. Yeah, but it used

21:37

to. Get used to it as well. Yeah. Get

21:40

used to that. Yeah. How long

21:42

might someone be here? That's

21:44

not unusual for like six months or twelve

21:46

months. No, sometimes we've had a year. Yeah.

21:50

Twelve months. But the crisis in temporary

21:52

accommodation is everywhere. It's a

21:54

world away here from gritty southeast London.

21:56

But the stories are in parallel. First,

21:58

we met Leah. a mum whose

22:01

relationship had broken down her gorgeous baby Matilda

22:03

in her arms as she spoke to us.

22:05

So we had a broken down in marriage

22:08

and then I couldn't afford to live in

22:10

the private rented place that I was commonly

22:12

in so the landlord kicked me out. And

22:14

you, you've got three kids. How

22:16

old are your kids? They are six and eight and I

22:18

was pregnant at the time. You were pregnant at the time

22:20

and you were evicted and you had

22:22

nowhere else to go. I mean

22:25

obviously most people are never going to encounter something like

22:27

that but that sounds like a very traumatic experience. Yeah

22:29

really traumatic. We had to go to court as well.

22:32

Because I asked if I could stay a little bit

22:34

longer just to get me through and lease the pregnancy

22:38

and he gave me six weeks break and then I had to get

22:40

out and the baby was two weeks old. And

22:42

so you had no idea where you were going to go? When

22:45

she said it's one room for all of us I didn't

22:47

know what to expect. So it

22:49

is one room for you and your three kids? Yes,

22:51

yeah one room. That

22:54

must be difficult. Really hard especially when

22:56

they've got school and a baby. Yeah

22:58

because your two sons are how

23:01

old? Reminder? Six and eight. Six and

23:03

eight so they've grown lads and keep

23:05

you busy and you're

23:07

all in one room and you've got the baby as well. Yes. That

23:10

must be really hard. Speak just nice. How

23:13

have your sons in particular responded to it? Upset.

23:17

They've seen me upset quite a few times. They

23:19

don't understand. I've just told them that we're in

23:21

a hotel and we're going to be getting a

23:23

house soon. I've not told them too

23:25

much because I don't want to damage what they've already

23:27

damaged anyway. Practically.

23:32

What are the practical implications of it or problems

23:34

with it? Well we've tried to not really come

23:36

back until bedtime because otherwise if I get back

23:38

here for say three o'clock there's nothing for them

23:40

to do. Especially in the winter months.

23:43

Can't go to the park. There's no

23:45

soft glaze open because they all shut at

23:47

like five six o'clock. So we've been

23:49

just going to different places

23:51

for food and then coming here to go straight To

23:54

sleep. Like Wandering about? really? Yeah pretty

23:56

much. Wandering around going to Starbucks going

23:58

to McDonald's. That's comfortable

24:00

inside and they said he friends or family

24:02

want us for dinner that night will take

24:04

the often say yes. Because without some

24:06

regulations even areas of the city's

24:08

pretty basic your knees and he

24:10

was either asked ago and he

24:13

have been homeless less terrifying. Me

24:16

with that's enough to give you see for nine.

24:18

So flower? yeah yeah yeah lot I have a

24:20

they yeah I don't know how to survive and

24:22

if honest I mean something would have broken down

24:24

other. I have personalities hands

24:27

that awful for just look author. I

24:30

remember this to some people living in

24:32

the small rooms with the kids than

24:34

on benefits they haven't got quote unquote,

24:36

Tail Sick Lives. Than. We work.

24:39

Maybe. If you're listening to this in a

24:41

hospital bed. They're looking after you. This.

24:43

Is Cecelia who is a health care assistance.

24:46

See. Was in Hs. yeah. But.

24:48

You Nhs salary he has not enough

24:50

sport of pay for combination Lhasa or

24:52

on a private rented markets or and

24:55

say you had no choice but sir.

24:58

Come. And live here. I

25:00

think that's know. That this club nightclub

25:02

little to test installing a concert

25:04

and maybe it's applied to now?

25:07

Flynn? yeah just Dylan tool at

25:09

a nice enough but to solicit

25:11

and. It's. Didn't eat up to

25:13

me meal med choice and and happy

25:15

about that to. The but some

25:17

of the citizens don't allow. You

25:20

to be alone. And minutes

25:22

a bottle and fun for

25:24

yourself. But. You think's gonna

25:26

happen to you and your family? To

25:29

single get better as you think things will

25:31

improve all. Day but still to

25:33

see cowards you know. And then I

25:35

went to which is it off taking

25:38

a courtesan although of as long as

25:40

responsible to pay my bills. but I

25:42

know council housing. Is a bit

25:44

subsidence that of people they. Can. State

25:47

Seven and that's a little I can

25:49

prove that can do some more. It's.

25:51

Assistant pay bills and blah blah.

25:53

the we can survive that is.

25:56

I m t a full of

25:58

indefinite care. and it's

26:00

making harder for me to go to work. And

26:03

that's a challenge, like

26:05

if I go, obviously I'll be homeless

26:08

with whole kids. But

26:10

if I stay still, it's compromising

26:12

my work and my studies, but I

26:14

have no choice. The

26:18

news agents investigate. This

26:26

is the news agents investigate.

26:33

Rents across the country have risen to record highs

26:35

of the 15-plus running. The

26:38

average rent for UK homes outside of London

26:40

has reached record highs. Rents

26:42

in England have risen 5.1% in the last

26:44

year, with increases as high as 20% in

26:46

some areas. Rents

26:49

are going up, properties for rent

26:51

snapped up within minutes, and social housing lists

26:53

can be as long as a decade. Temporary

26:57

accommodation used to be, as it's held on the internet, a

27:00

place councils would provide to people, children in

27:02

particular, whose families had fallen on the toughest

27:04

times. It wasn't fancy, it wasn't much,

27:07

but it was something until such time that

27:09

the council could find you something better. These

27:11

days, through galloping rents and a total

27:14

dearth of council housing, temporary accommodation can

27:16

be anything but. Again, hotels, B&Bs, blocks,

27:18

where whole families live in one room

27:21

can become your permanent home. And just

27:23

because they're not seen, just because we

27:25

haven't got kids and their moms and

27:28

dads on the streets, doesn't mean they're

27:30

not homeless, they are. And because of

27:32

that, of all the types of homelessness,

27:35

it is the one we talk about

27:37

least, because it is unseen. And here's

27:39

the other thing, it's not just crippling

27:42

for the individuals themselves, but increasingly for

27:44

government itself. Eastbourne is another

27:46

quite prosperous place in the south

27:48

of England, which finds itself near

27:50

breaking point because of this crisis.

27:53

Stephen Holt is the Lib Dem

27:55

leader of Eastbourne Council. Just

27:57

give us a sense. How big a problem...

28:00

and indeed commitment for your council

28:02

is it with regards to temporary

28:04

accommodation? To Eastbourne it's a massive

28:06

issue. It's probably the single biggest

28:08

issue we are currently facing. Our

28:11

studies and our research have shown that

28:13

out of every pound we collect in

28:15

council tax, 49p is spent on temporary

28:18

accommodation but that figure isn't

28:20

just isolated to Eastbourne. It's actually

28:22

something that is widespread across lovely

28:25

authorities, particularly those coastal ones that

28:27

are certainly across the country and across

28:29

party as well. Let me just go

28:32

this straight, councilor. 49% of

28:35

all of your council tax revenue is

28:37

consumed by the money that you have

28:39

to spend on temporary accommodation, housing people

28:42

who would otherwise be homeless. That's absolutely

28:44

correct, yeah. That is an astonishing figure.

28:46

It is and it's completely unsustainable for

28:49

anybody, for any political party, for any

28:51

authority, for any organisation, if

28:53

half of your almost guaranteed revenue is

28:55

spent on temporary accommodation, which is a

28:57

statutory service, that's not sustainable going forward

29:00

in the future and that's why so

29:02

many councils are struggling with this challenge

29:04

at the moment. 50%,

29:06

yes you heard that right, 50% of

29:08

a council's finances being spent on

29:10

temporary accommodation. And the size of

29:12

this burden for Eastbourne isn't so

29:14

unusual and it is forcing councils

29:16

like Eastbourne to take tough decisions.

29:18

It very much means that we

29:20

are having to look right now

29:22

at everything that we're spending because such

29:24

a high proportion without government support means that

29:27

we need to look at all of our

29:29

spending and it means that some

29:31

of our discretionary services could be under threat,

29:34

such as tourism is a

29:36

really good example. Eastbourne's economy is based

29:38

on tourism, we run events, they tend

29:41

to be profit, they're always

29:43

cost due to or profit making but

29:46

we can't take the risk perhaps that

29:48

we would do, perhaps on that tourism

29:50

economy but it's things as well like

29:52

our parks and gardens, it's considered a

29:55

discretionary service and some of the

29:57

other things that make the town the town and

29:59

that we would be very... clean on supporting we might not

30:01

be able to do in the future. Now we're

30:03

working hard to find efficiencies, to find savings, to

30:06

manage those costs, but with

30:08

such a high proportion of our income being

30:10

spent on temporary accommodation it's going to be

30:12

a challenge, but more importantly that safety net

30:14

is at risk of collapse. And

30:17

indeed presumably, because as you say this isn't just

30:19

something to your council, but to

30:22

lots of our local authorities, we know how stretched

30:24

local government is. Presumably

30:26

this is one of the contributing

30:28

factors to so many councils either

30:30

going bankrupt, effectively going bankrupt, or

30:32

being close to it. Absolutely. You

30:34

may be aware that we had

30:37

an online summit back in October

30:39

where we had 120

30:41

councils and leaders of those councils sign

30:43

an open letter to the government calling

30:45

for support, calling for a threat, and

30:48

25 of those councils

30:50

were conservative councils I hasten to add.

30:52

This is a cross-party problem. This

30:54

is a national issue. And

30:56

then I hosted a further summit in

30:59

Westminster to really try and raise the

31:01

profile of this even further to make people aware

31:03

of the challenges and the issues. And

31:06

again we had representatives of conservative

31:08

authorities, labor authorities, lib dem authorities,

31:10

all the same message which

31:13

is with the spiring costs ever

31:15

increasing and the numbers of people

31:17

who call on us for support

31:19

increasing, we need a more sustainable

31:22

financial package going forward. Let's

31:26

be realistic. Temporary accommodation isn't going to

31:28

get a look in at the general

31:31

election. I believe in

31:33

cutting taxes, but doing

31:35

that responsibly is hard. The

31:37

bird non-working people is too

31:40

high when it comes to tax, so

31:42

that's where we would be looking to

31:44

reduce that bird. We need to be

31:46

more ambitious about helping people back to

31:48

work. Growing the economy is the number

31:51

one. Success is when the boats have

31:53

been stopped. Privatisation has not worked. It's

31:55

deteriorated under this government. Today I'm announcing

31:57

the biggest strengthening of our national or

32:00

defence for a generation. It'll

32:03

be squeezed by the big issues of

32:05

the moment. Defence, tax, the trivia of

32:07

the personalities of our would-be Prime Ministers.

32:10

These are, as we say, people at

32:12

their most powerless. Many won't even be

32:14

on the electoral roll. They won't even

32:16

be able to vote because we're living

32:18

with a pretense there may be somewhere

32:21

else for them to go. Sums

32:23

it up, really. But we should be

32:25

thinking about it and thinking about them, not

32:28

just because of the obvious injustice for the

32:30

kids most of all, but because if we

32:32

don't get a groove of it, it will

32:34

just be whoever is in office, yet another

32:37

factor driving local and national governments to insolvency.

32:39

And because this crisis sits in

32:42

the middle of so many other

32:44

crises, the wider housing one, local

32:46

government funding, immigration, benefits, employment, there

32:48

aren't easy or instant answers. But

32:51

it would be something, wouldn't it,

32:53

this general election year to hear

32:55

a politician say that no kid

32:57

in 21st century Britain should be

32:59

calling a Victorian set up, a

33:01

room shed with their brothers and sisters,

33:04

their moms and dads home, to

33:06

hear a politician say to people

33:08

unseen that they weren't. Thanks

33:13

so much for listening to this News

33:15

Agents Investigates. We will be back with

33:17

more soon. I'm Lewis Goodall. This episode

33:19

was produced and edited by Laura Fitzpatrick.

33:21

Normal service resumes on Monday. This

33:29

is a Global Player original podcast.