The District Councils’ Network (DCN), which represents 187 authorities with responsibility for homelessness, said housing must be at the centre of ministers’ exit strategy to avoid a surge in people losing their homes as a result of a loss of income during the pandemic.
Analysis by the DCN identified 486,242 households spending more than half their earnings on private rented housing who could be at risk of homelessness when the government’s evictions moratorium ends.
Frontline workers on low wages, such as those dealing with the emergency in the health, food and logistics sectors, are likely to be especially susceptible, according to the body.
Lone parents with children account for 108,000 of the at-risk households, with another 100,000 between the ages of 16 and 24. Around 160,000 have incomes less than £15,000 a year.
