In response to new Government figures revealing that 1,989 households in Wandsworth were recorded as living in temporary accommodation between April and June 2019, including a total of 2,496 children, local London Assembly Member, Leonie Cooper AM, said:
“It's awful that so many local families will wake up on Christmas Day in unsuitable, or even unsafe, living conditions.
“This is a scandal created by decades of failure to hit housing supply targets. We shouldn't allow children to remain trapped in unsuitable accommodation, often with no space to learn or play.
“Under Sadiq Khan, City Hall is making a difference by directly funding the development of new council homes for the first time in years. But the overall number of council homes in London continues to fall, because the government refuses to end Right to Buy.
“The Government has an opportunity to turn this around by scrapping the Right to Buy and giving more funding and powers to the Mayor so that he can go even further, to get children out of temporary accommodation”.
ENDS