The Bed and Breakfast Unit must set targets and consider support packages to protect “hundreds” of children at risk of abuse or even murder, an MP warned last week
Speaking in a parliamentary debate about housing, Regents Park and Kensington North MP Karen Buck said: “The Victoria Climbie inquiry highlighted how easy it is for vulnerable families to fall through the net, especially if they do not have English as a first language or have other communication problems and are highly mobile.

“The Bayswater families unit told me that there must be hundreds of other Climbie cases waiting to happen. We hope that they do not, but the risk exists because of the mobility in the temporary accommodation sector.”

There was a “strong case” for targeting the next round of the Sure Start programme on wards with high levels of B&B accommodation, as they tended not to appear on the index of multiple deprivation, she said.

Buck was referring to the case of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie, who died after months of abuse at the hands of her great-aunt Marie Therese Kouao, and Kouao’s boyfriend Carl Manning.

The Labour MP disputed B&B Unit head Ashley Horsey’s view that there should not be targets for its work, claiming there was “no alternative”.

“Unless we have numerical targets to reduce the numbers living in B&B accommodation, we will not be able to monitor progress,” she explained.

“The unit could consider not simply how quickly people can be moved out of B&B accommodation but how to create a better package of support services.”

Buck also called for reform of housing benefit before rent restructuring goes live. A cap of no more than £100 a week must be considered for high value areas in London, she said.

“The complex pattern of rent restructuring could blow up in our faces, and I urge [junior housing minister Sally Keeble] to ensure that we do not run into serious problems,” Buck warned.