Children in some parts of England are spending more than five and a half years in temporary accommodation, a Sky News investigation has found.

Data from Freedom of Information requests shows London and the South East are the regions seeing the longest stays for homeless households.

More than two-thirds of local authorities saw households with children experience stays 20% longer than households without children.

The average length of time spent in temporary accommodation ranges from two weeks to five and a half years – depending on where in the country people live.

Average lengths of stay for all households have increased by nearly a fifth (17%) since 2020.

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Lewisham was the worst-affected local authority, with some families with children having been stuck in temporary accommodation for more than five and a half years in 2023-24.

In 2020-21, the average length of stay in the south-east London borough was 620 days – in the four years since it has risen to 2,044.

Lewisham, Brighton and Wandsworth are the areas that currently have the longest average stays – all more than three and a half years.

That is according to the latest data from the first six months of this financial year (2024-25). Ninety-seven councils responded to Sky News’ Freedom of Information requests.

Nicole Hamilton and her son Logan have spent more than two years in temporary accommodation in London.

Despite working full-time, she has been unable to find anywhere to privately rent.

She said Logan, who is four, has spent “most of his life” in temporary accommodation.

“They told me I could be here for another three years,” she said. “I don’t want him to be suffering in one room.”

Nicole also describes temporary accommodation as “not safe for any child under the age of seven”.

She added: “When the government are giving nothing to the council, and the council have nowhere to put us, they’re literally putting us where they have, be it safe or not.”

‘Children will grow up with different life chances’

Claire Cruise, a lawyer from Southwark Law Centre specialising in education, describes a “two-tier system” developing between those children who live in temporary accommodation, and those who do not.

She said: “You have the long-term impact on children’s mental health, you have the social isolation… children in hotel rooms don’t have desks to be able to do their work, they fall behind their peers so quickly.

“My fear is that it leads to a two-tier society and we are talking a significant number who will grow up with completely different life chances.”

A shortage of housing nationally is contributing towards the homelessness crisis.

The government has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes in the next five years.

Shadow secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, Kevin Hollinrake, describes the plan as “confused” and “chaotic”.

He told Sky News: “Look at the maps, look at where those houses are, many of the boroughs of London have seen a decrease in their targets for housing delivery, a decrease.

“Yet we know the demand in London for rough sleeping, for temporary accommodation, is at its highest.

“So it makes no sense… it’s chaotic right now. It’s all over the place.

“Now say if they can deliver on this stuff, great… more affordable homes, more social homes, then we’ll welcome that… but at the moment it’s very difficult to see how that’s going to happen.”

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‘Consequences of years of failure’

In response, the minister for homelessness Rushanara Ali said the government has “inherited the consequences of years of failure to grip the housing crisis”.

She described “far too many families and children” who are “facing the uncertainty and trauma of homelessness”.

“This has to stop, which is why we are taking decisive action and working at pace across government to end homelessness,” she said.

“We have already announced extra funding to bring support for homelessness services to £1bn next year.

“On top of this, we will deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and tackle one of the biggest drivers of homelessness by ending no fault evictions.”

Councils will receive a cash injection of nearly £1bn next year to tackle homelessness in England, Angela Rayner has announced.

The deputy prime minister and housing secretary said 160,000 children faced spending Christmas without a regular home due to failures in the system and vowed to “break the cycle of spiralling homelessness and get back on track to ending it for good”.

The funding, described by Ms Rayner as the “largest-ever” investment and a “turning point”, will help councils intervene early to stop households becoming homeless, including through mediation with landlords to prevent eviction.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the money could also be used on services that prioritise access to permanent social housing for people with a history of repeat homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse.

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The latest statistics show that homelessness, which includes people living in temporary accommodation, is at record levels, with 123,100 households in England in temporary accommodation in the three months to the end of June.

The figure marks an increase of 16.3% on the same period the previous year.

The same statistics showed 159,380 children were in temporary accommodation between April and June this year.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the country faces “the worst housing crisis in living memory” with some 40% of homeless families living in B&Bs or nightly-let accommodation, as the use of such emergency accommodation has doubled in three years.

Ms Rayner said: “Too many people have been failed by the system time and again.

“160,000 children face spending this Christmas without a stable place to call home. I am determined to break the cycle of spiralling homelessness and get back on track to ending it for good.

“This largest-ever investment marks a turning point, giving councils the tools they need to act quickly and put in place support for people to tackle, reduce and prevent homelessness. It’s time to turn the tide.

“This historic funding comes alongside our work developing a cross-government strategy back on track to end homelessness, pulling every lever of the state, to ensure that we deliver not just sticking plasters but a long-term plan.”

The funding, which will be introduced from April, includes more than £633m for the homelessness prevention grant, a £192m increase from this year, which will be allocated based on local pressures.

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Five million will go towards pilots to reduce emergency accommodation in areas with the highest use of B&Bs.

Housing charity Shelter said the cash injection was “vital to help councils support people facing homelessness”.

However, it said the government needed to build 90,000 homes a year for 10 years, saying: ” You cannot solve homelessness without homes”.

One of the central missions of the new Labour government is to build 1.5 million homes by the end of this parliament – with local councils last week told to come up with “immediate, mandatory” housing targets as part of the plan.

Police forces need to be better prepared for serious violence and disorder, according to a review of the response to this summer’s riots.

The report also found police failed to realise the significance of a number of events leading up to the riots, leaving gaps in intelligence linked to social media and the dark web.

Violence flared across the country following the deaths of three schoolgirls in a knife attack in Southport in Merseyside in July.

The unrest and disorder continued for several days.

In September, the home secretary asked His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to carry out a rapid review into the policing response to the disorder.

The first part of the report, which is published today, said that officers had showed “immense bravery and personal sacrifice” throughout the disorder but that forces were unprepared for the scale of the rioting.

It said the decision by the National Police Chiefs’ Council to implement a national mobilisation plan on 6 August was made too late and should have been activated four days earlier.

The inspectorate said a number of events in 2023 and 2024 were indicators of potential future disorder but this had not been reflected in police intelligence reviews.

“Our assessment of these incidents suggests that the risks of disorder were greater than the police believed them to be,” it said. “They involved extreme nationalist sentiment, aggravated activism or serious disorder.”

The incidents included demonstrations organised by Tommy Robinson, unrest in Leeds and Cardiff and violence on Armistice Day in London.

The report also concluded that the dress code initially handed down by commanders could have left officers vulnerable to injury.

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke, told Sky News: “Officers shouldn’t have to stand there and be subjected to that level of barrage that we saw.

“Policing needs to look again at how quickly it mobilises more resources in these instances to actually ensure that those officers aren’t stood in these lines for so long, that different tactics can be used. To do different tactics you need more resources.

“Getting officers to these locations where there are problems quickly is a critical part of that.”

He praised the dedication and bravery of officers who had protected the public. Some 302 officers were injured in the violence, with more than 50 needing hospital treatment.

He said some of the most sustained violence was faced by officers who came under siege while protecting hotels housing migrants.

Female officers and those from minority backgrounds bore the brunt of the attacks.

‘A complex situation’

The inspectorate found the speedy identification and prosecution of hundreds of people involved in the riots helped to bring an end to the violence.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for public disorder, Chief Constable BJ Harrington said it was encouraging the report acknowledged “the immense bravery and professionalism” of officers.

He said the finding that the national mobilisation plan should have been made earlier was a “helpful recommendation”.

He added: “Hindsight can be useful, and these learnings are important, but we are pleased that the Inspectorate also recognise how complex of a situation this was for policing to respond to, and that on the whole, the service did so well.”

In Walton on Merseyside, where rioters burned down a community library, there was broad support for the efforts of police to control to the summer’s disorder.

The Spellow Community Hub and Library reopened last week and the city council’s head of libraries Alicia Smith said: “Our emergency services were amazing.”

A second report from the inspectorate, which will look at social media misinformation among other things, is due to be published in the spring.

Mr Cooke said the focus should be on being prepared: “I doubt it will be another 14 years before we see serious disorder. I hope it is, but I doubt it.”