Councils paying private landlords millions to house homeless people

Councils across England are paying private landlords millions of pounds a year as incentives to house homeless families, with campaigners describing the outlay as a "senseless waste of public money".

- Jessica Murray

Data gathered by the campaign group Generation Rent via freedom of information requests showed that 37 councils spent more than £31m on one-off payments to private landlords on 10,792 occasions in 2024-25.

The data covers all 32 London councils and the 10 councils outside the capital with the biggest statutory homelessness issues. It shows that the amount being spent by councils in London to encourage private landlords to house families who are homeless or facing eviction has increased by 54% since 2018, the last time data was collected.

Ben Twomey, the chief executive of Generation Rent, said: "The soaring cost of renting and the government's decision to freeze the local housing allowance has put councils across the country in a near impossible position.

"In a desperate bid to avoid placing people in temporary accommodation, they're forced to pay individual landlords sometimes tens of thousands of pounds just for them to agree to rent out their home. It's a senseless waste of our public money."