§ Baroness Jegerasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the number of single people and homeless families in bed and breakfast accommodation at the last convenient date; and what is the current cost to the Government and to local authorities compared with the same date in the previous year.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleThree thousand eight hundred and fifty households were in bed and breakfast accommodation at 30th June 1985, compared with 3,020 at 30th June 1984, having been placed there by local authorities under the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977. According to information published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, net expenditure by authorities on maintaining households in bed and breakfast accommodation in 1984–85 was £10.3 million or £13.3 per household per day, compared with £8.8 million or £12.4 in 1983–84. Information is not available on the size and characteristics of these households or the extent to which they were in receipt of supplementary benefit payments, and hence on the cost to the Government.