Enough children to fill more than 4,500 classrooms spent the summer holidays in temporary accommodation, latest figures show.
When pupils broke up from school, there were 119,830 children in England in temporary accommodation for the end-of-term break.
The LGA says this underlines the need to build more social housing. It wants to work with government on a long-term plan to tackle homelessness, so everyone has a safe and secure permanent home, as part of the recovery from coronavirus.
It is calling on the Government to let councils build back locally, by giving them the powers and resources to deliver a social housing building programme of 100,000 new homes a year, to help address the housing shortage.
The LGA is calling for further reform of the Right to Buy scheme so that councils can retain 100 per cent of receipts, have flexibility to combine Right to Buy receipts with other government grants, and set the size of discounts locally.
By doing this, councils could get building much-needed homes more quickly.
Cllr Darren Rodwell, LGA Housing Spokesperson, said: “Having a safe, secure, permanent home is the bedrock of any child getting the very best start in life, so it is tragic that thousands of children spent their summer holidays living in temporary accommodation.
“This is a sad reflection of the lack of housing in this country and demonstrates the urgent need to build more social homes.
“This won’t happen overnight, but it is vital that councils, working with government, are given the powers to get building homes again at a scale that drastically reduces homelessness, as we look to build back the nation following the pandemic.”
