From three-bed house last Christmas to homelessness this year – the family of four whose story is becoming all too familiar
In the corner of a cramped hotel room, there’s a small Christmas tree. Two stockings hang from the window ledges. There isn’t room for much more. Bunk beds and a double bed take up much of the space.
The rest of the room is filled with the possessions of a family of four who have found themselves suddenly and unexpectedly homeless.
A year ago the prospect of having nowhere to live never would have occurred to Adam, his wife and two children, who were living in a three-bedroom home in West Bromwich that they had rented for eight years.
Adam works as an electrician and his wife works as a teaching assistant. They had always paid their rent on time.
But their children, Holly, 12, and her younger brother, will now be among a record number of children who are homeless this Christmas.
Holly in her old garden
They are two of the almost 139,000 children in England who will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation. It’s an increase of 14% from 2022 as the number of homeless families hits the highest since records began.
In September, just as Holly was starting secondary school, their landlord told them he had decided to sell their house.
“It was gut-wrenching leaving, because that’s all the kids have ever known really,” Adam says.
“We were evicted through no fault of our own – we always paid our rent and everything like that – it’s just the landlord wanted to sell up at the time.”
They quickly found they had nowhere to go.
‘It’s soul destroying’
Adam explains: “Where we were for eight years, the rent stayed pretty much the same all that time, so to then be suddenly kicked out and see what the going rate is now for rental markets… it’s astronomical really… it was too much for us to even consider.”
The family have joined the long waiting list for a council house but are resigned that they will be spending at least the next month in the hotel room in Birmingham provided for them as emergency accommodation.
“The anxiety of it not knowing when we’re going to be out and when my children are going to have their own rooms again… it’s quite soul destroying really,” Adam says.
“We’re hoping sometime early in the new year we’re going to have better news.”
The hotel where they’re staying is on Hagley Road, one of the main routes into Birmingham. It’s lined with hotels and B&Bs that have become shelters for the city’s homeless.
‘Like we’re in prison’
A few doors down, Nadia and her three teenagers share a hotel room. They’ve been homeless since 2021, and face their third Christmas in temporary accommodation.
“It just becomes unbearable after a while, just like we’re in a prison, just four walls,” Nadia says.
Nadia and her three children share one room
Don, 17, and his two sisters have to do their school and college work sitting on their beds. He says all he wants is his own space and a home he can invite his friends to.
They’re not allowed visitors and he doesn’t like to tell his classmates where he lives.
The family became homeless after falling behind on payments on their privately rented house. Nadia says she scrolls property websites for other private rentals but simply can’t afford them.
Instead, they wait and hope for a council house. But their circumstances have been made worse because Nadia lost her job as a care support worker last year.
She says she received a call from the council to say they had found her family a house in Walsall, 15 miles away from Birmingham. She doesn’t have a car so told her employer she couldn’t come in anymore. Then, on the morning they were due to move, she was told the house had fallen through.
Nadia and her family’s belongings remain in bags
“I’d lost my job already, so basically I lost my income,” she says. She’s now in training with the Jobcentre but still has no idea how much longer they will have to wait for a home.
The problem isn’t going away
The experiences of these two families are mirrored across the country.
“If you look at the sort of overarching reasons, we don’t have enough affordable housing,” says Matthew Wilkins, head of value for money at the Centre for Homelessness Impact.
“Local authorities will place people in B&Bs where they have no other options to go into. The latest data suggests that that’s really increased,” he adds.
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The bill to councils in England for temporary accommodation has spiralled to £1.7bn, up from £1.2bn three years ago.
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‘I was evicted and I became homeless’
“The situation we find ourselves in now suggests that the spending of some authorities on homelessness and temporary accommodation is such that it could pose a risk to the financial sustainability in the longer term,” Mr Wilkins says.
“If you take one particular case in one particular place, we calculate that almost 50% of people who are housed in temporary accommodation in the private rented sector in London will be there for around five years or more.”
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, told Sky’s Kay Burley: “It’s a complex and shocking problem – It’s to do partly with the breakdown of family relationships. It’s also to do with the lack of the sustenance that people need, and I know in the parishes of Westminster Diocese and many, many, many other places, great efforts are made to provide some treats at Christmas.
“But that doesn’t get to the structural underlying problems, and we’ve still got a huge economic challenge to try and find a way in which there’s meaningful employment for people who at the moment maybe are working and, even with work, can’t sustain the broken family.”
This provides little hope for children like Holly who has two wishes this Christmas: “To get a house and to make my family happy,” she says, adding that life is currently “quite scary, because we don’t really have anywhere to go”.
Additional reporting by Nick Stylianou, communities producer.
UK
Starmer urges anyone with information on Epstein case to come forward – after Andrew misses Congress deadline
Sir Keir Starmer has urged anyone with information on the Jeffrey Epstein case to come forward after Andrew Mountbatten Windsor missed the deadline to appear in front of US Congress.
US legislators have criticised Andrew for what they describe as “silence” amid their probe into Epstein after he failed to respond to their request for an interview.
When asked about Andrew missing the deadline and whether the former prince should help the case in any way he can, Sir Keir said on his way to the G20 summit in South Africa: “I don’t comment on this particular case.”
He added that “a general principle I’ve held for a very long time is that anybody who has got relevant information in relation to these kind of cases should give that evidence to those that need it”.
Andrew is not legally obliged to talk to Congress and has always vigorously denied any wrongdoing.
Sir Keir Starmer spoke to reporters on his way to the G20 in South Africa. Pic: Reuters
It comes as Marjorie Taylor Greene, a loyal supporter-turned-critic of US President Donald Trump, said on Friday she is resigning from Congress in January.
Ms Greene’s resignation followed a public falling-out with Mr Trump in recent months, as the congresswoman criticised him for his stance on files related to Epstein, as well as on foreign policy and healthcare.
Members of the House Oversight Committee had requested a “transcribed interview” with Andrew in connection with his “long-standing friendship” with Epstein, the paedophile financier who took his own life in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
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Releasing the Epstein files: How we got here
But after saying they had not heard back, Democrats Robert Garcia and Suhas Subramanyam accused Andrew of hiding.
Their statement read: “Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s silence in the face of the Oversight Democrat’s demand for testimony speaks volumes.
“The documents we’ve reviewed, along with public records and Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s testimony, raise serious questions he must answer, yet he continues to hide.
“Our work will move forward with or without him, and we will hold anyone who was involved in these crimes accountable, no matter their wealth, status, or political party. We will get justice for the survivors.”
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The new Epstein files: The key takeaways
It follows Andrew being stripped of his prince and Duke of York titles earlier this month.
He had previously agreed to stop using his titles, but had expected to remain a prince and retain his dukedom, ahead of the publication of the memoirs of the late Ms Giuffre, who had accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager – an accusation he denies.
A 13-year-old girl has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman in Swindon.
Police said the teenager was detained following an incident in Baydon Close, Moredon, in the Wiltshire town on Friday evening.
Officers responded to reports of disorder inside a house. When they arrived, a woman in her 50s living at the address was found to be not breathing. She was declared dead at the scene.
There were no other reported injuries.
Forensic officers are at the scene to collect evidence
Detective Inspector Darren Ambrose, from Wiltshire Police’s major crime investigation team, said: “This is a serious incident in which a woman has sadly died.
“We have set up a cordon at the address while an investigation is carried out.
“I can confirm that we have arrested a teenage girl in connection with this incident and we are not looking for anyone else.”
Police have asked people not to speculate about the incident online as this could prejudice the case.
A police statement read: “Residents can expect to see an increased police presence in the area while we continue carrying out our enquiries into the woman’s death.
“The suspect remains in custody at this time.”
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Police said anyone with concerns should speak with their local neighbourhood policing team, either by emailing or approaching officers in person.
Rail fares are to be frozen for the first time in 30 years, the government has announced.
Ministers promised that millions of rail travellers will save hundreds of pounds on regulated fares, including season tickets and peak and off-peak returns between major cities.
The fare freeze applies to England and services run by English train operators.
People commuting to work three days a week using flexi-season tickets will save £315 a year travelling from Milton Keynes to London, £173 travelling from Woking to London and £57 from Bradford to Leeds, the government said.
The changes are part of Labour’s plans to rebuild a publicly owned Great British Railways. Other planned changes include tap in-tap out and digital ticketing, as well as investing in superfast Wi-Fi.
The freeze applies to regulated fares, including season tickets and peak and off-peak returns. Pic: iStock
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the government was introducing a freeze on rail fares for the first time in 30 years, which “will ease the pressure on household finances and make travelling to work, school or to visit friends and family that bit easier”.
“We all want to see cheaper rail travel, so we’re freezing fares to help millions of passengers save money,” Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said.
“Commuters on more expensive routes will save more than £300 per year, meaning they keep more of their hard-earned cash.”
Rail unions and passenger groups welcomed the move, praising how it will make travel more affordable for passengers and promote more sustainable travel alternatives.
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Christmas travel chaos expected
Dozens injured in passenger train collision
Eddie Dempsey, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said: “More affordable fares will encourage greater use of public transport, supporting jobs, giving a shot in the arm to local economies and helping to improve the environment.”
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the rail fare freeze “will be a huge relief to working people”.
“This is the right decision, at the right time, to help passengers be able to afford to make that journey they need to take, and to help grow our railway in this country, because the railway is Britain’s green alternative – taking cars and lorries off our congested roads and moving people and goods safely around our country in an environmentally-friendly way,” Mick Whelan, general secretary of the train drivers union Aslef, said.
The Tories welcomed the move but said the government was “late to the platform”.
Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden said: “In government, the Conservatives kept fares on the right track with below-inflation rises and consistently called for no further hikes to protect hard-working commuters.”
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