Enfield’s ‘hard line’ left 100 homeless families without help

Labour-run council’s policy of offering homes outside the area led to high refusal rate

- Chaminda Jayanetti

A Labour-run London council left more than 100 homeless families without support last year after they refused to be relocated outside the borough, the Observer can reveal.

Freedom of information data from about 80% of English councils shows that they ended their legal duties to 615 households who refused offers of housing outside the local authority area in 2024 but this national total is heavily skewed.

Labour-run Enfield was responsible for 115 cases, the highest anywhere and accounting for nearly a fifth of all cases in England. It comes as the council tries to buy up housing around Liverpool to relocate homeless families there.

Councils have legal obligations to support and rehouse homeless people, but they can terminate these duties if a household refuses a “reasonable” offer of housing.

That offer must be affordable, but councils have more leeway around location, and the housing affordability crisis in London and other high-demand areas has seen large numbers of homeless people relocated around the country.