Gove 'regrets' number of children in temporary accommodation

Michael Gove faces record homelessness Photo: Paul Grover

Michael Gove said he “regrets” the record set by many children living in temporary accommodation.

The Housing Minister blamed not enough homes for rent, admitting that “we haven’t built enough houses for many years.”

Data released by the Department of Housing Improvement, Housing and Communities last month revealed that the number of children living in temporary accommodation had reached a record high.

There were 145,800 children in temporary accommodation in December 2023 – more than double the in the first quarter of 2012, 70,090.

Mr Gove told the BBC's Today programme: “I can't look at these figures with anything other than regret.”

“But there are several interrelated problems and the biggest problem overall is that whether it's the private rented sector, the social rented sector or houses to buy, we still need to increase the supply of houses now.

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“I think the government has done a great job, you know, we will build a million houses in this parliament, but we need to do even better in the future.”

Mr Gove blamed “increasing pressure on housing supply.”

“The number of people coming to this country, the number of families that have grown means that we have not been building enough houses for many years.”

When told the government had failed to deliver on the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year, he said: “We didn’t hit the 300,000 target, but we hit one million during the course of Parliament.”

With Mr Gove's Tenants (Reform) Bill currently making its way through Parliament, he was also asked about the delay in plans to abolish so-called “no fault” evictions, which were first announced in 2019.< /p>

The government wants to delay full implementation of the ban until the courts are assessed as having the capacity to hear new cases.

Mr Gove said: “I hope the bill that ensures we no longer have section 21 gets royal assent, in other words, gets ready and cleaned up for the summer.”

“Then hopefully in a few months we will end section 21 for new tenants and then soon after that we will be able to end section 21 completely.”