Newham is Londons worst for for families in temporary homes

The Greater London Authority’s league table of councils revealed that Newham had 5221 households in temporary accommodation during June 2004.

That’s a slight increase on its figure for April, the last occasion the statistics were collected in the east London borough.

Overall, the number of homeless families in temporary accommodation across the capital in June was estimated to have risen to 65,900, an increase of just over 1000 on the previous month.

Chris Wood, director of housing at Newham, said: “The reason for the high figure is the underlying deprivation in the borough.

“But we’ve succeeded in shifting all of the families in temporary accommodation from B&Bs into accommodation that, while temporary, is at least more permanent.”

He added that the council was leading the way among London boroughs in investigating ways in which it could buy properties being used to provide temporary accommodation.

Other councils at the bottom of the table included Brent, Haringey, Enfield and Westminster (table, left).

The best performer was the Corporation of London, which has only 34 families in temporary accommodation, followed by Merton council.

Merton managed to reduce the number of families in temporary accommodation to 155, down by 18 on two months previously.