A total of 74 children, mostly babies, have died in recent years in England with temporary accommodation recorded as a possible contributory factor, new figures show.
Fifty-eight of those who died between April 2019 and March last year were aged under one, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Households in Temporary Accommodation said.
In each of the 74 deaths, temporary accommodation – considered a form of homelessness – was listed as a contributing factor to their vulnerability, ill-health, or death.
In total between October 2023 and September last year, 80 children died while living in temporary accommodation, according to the National Child Mortality Database – accounting for 3% of the total number of child deaths during that period.
The Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) process assesses circumstances of such deaths, including whether temporary accommodation was a contributing factor.
The APPG said there was a disproportionate number of children from deprived areas represented in the figures, while children from non-white families were also over-represented, accounting for 38% of deaths across the five-year period despite making up only 27% of the population.
Dame Siobhain McDonagh, chair of the APPG, described the figures as “shocking”.
She said: “Seventy-four children have died in five years with temporary accommodation contributing to their death. That is more than one every month. How shocking is that? In the fifth largest economy in the world.
“Last year, the APPG I chair was successful in getting the Homelessness Code of Guidance changed to include cots for homeless families. This guidance needs to be made law to ensure that deaths in Temporary Accommodation is zero.”
Big Issue founder Lord John Bird, said the figures were “a shameful tragedy” as he called on the Government to “urgently move away from this sticking plaster solution to homelessness”.
The cross-bench peer said he is setting out a private members’ bill in the House of Lords this week for the establishment of a “Ministry for Poverty Prevention” which he said would “scrutinise every penny spent and ensure we’re turning off the tap of people falling into homelessness, as well as helping those who are homeless to find long-term sustainable housing”.
The latest official figures, published in December by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), showed there were 123,100 households in England in temporary accommodation in the three months to the end of June 2024 – a rise of 16.3% on the same period the previous year.
There were 159,380 children in temporary accommodation between April and June 2024, those statistics showed.
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: “These truly shocking findings break my heart. No family should ever have to endure such a tragic loss of life and be failed by the very system there to protect them.
“No child should be forced to grow up in unsafe and frankly appalling conditions and that is why we are taking urgent action to right the wrongs of the past.
“We will fix the current system that has left far too many families trapped in temporary accommodation with no end in sight and end homelessness for good by tackling the root causes and driving up housing standards.
“This year alone we are providing the largest-ever cash boost in homelessness prevention services, with nearly £1 billion for councils, to stop families becoming homeless in the first place and provide them with safe, secure and stable housing so they can rebuild their lives.
“This is part of our long-term plan to turn the tide and end homelessness once and for all.”