News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

One of the most shocking illustrations of the housing crisis - we have found that there are ten empty homes for every housing family in our country.

Some of these are in between buyers and renters but others are intentionally being held off the market by investors.

The estimated 635,000 empty properties in England alone are a complete and utter waste of housing when there are so many homeless families looking for somewhere to live. A large number of these (200,000) have been left empty for over six months.

Meanwhile under this government homeless numbers keep rising...

In 2004, the Labour Government set out to halve the number of homeless families living in temporary accommodation by the end of their third term, in 2010. They succeeded in cutting the figure from over 100,000 in 2004 to 48,000 five years later.

The long downward trend in the homeless population stopped in 2011 - in the middle of the economic crisis - and since then it's never really recovered.

We now have the highest number of homeless households in the last five years - three-fourths with children and/or an expectant mother.

The real number of homeless people is almost certainly a lot higher: these stats in fact don't include those homeless who have not approached their local authorities for assistance, as well as those meet the statutory criteria

According to Shelter 90,000 children spent their Christmas in a temporary accommodation last year.

And yet house-building is at its lowest in peacetime since the 1920s

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, this is the prime contributor to homelessness.

Nearly 5,000 families are placed in B&Bs

The Government has always said homeless families should not placed in bed and breakfasts for a period exceeding six weeks - local authorities should in the meantime find these families a permanent accomodation.

And yet in 2012 the National Housing Federation found that there had been a 60% increase in the number of children and pregnant women living in bed and breakfasts, and over a third had been there for longer than the six-week limit – that's a 200% increase over two years.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, told us that “t he Mayor must commit to building the genuinely affordable homes the capital is crying out for.” Adding “it’s appalling that in one of the wealthiest cities in the world there are forgotten homeless children, hidden from view and living with no stability, often in poor and unsafe conditions."

London - where the housing crisis is most acute - accounts for 75% of the increase in homelessness

Unsurprisingly - given the prohibitive housing costs of our capital - most homeless families are in London. And they're rising here too - by 8% since 2013.

The lack of affordable housing means the bed and breakfast problem is rampant in London.

In September 2013 the Local Government Ombudsman criticised Westminster Council for keeping around 40 families in B&B for longer than six weeks.

In August 2014 three London authorities - Brent, Tower Hamlets and Hillingdon - were found to have broke the B&B rule.

[Source: IPPR, House of Commons Library, Department for Communities and Local Government]