Homeless households trapped in temporary accommodation were today urged to "find a place you can afford" outside of London by a council which cannot keep up with the "tsunami of demand" for housing.
Brent has become the latest borough to tell people relying on the local authority for somewhere to live that they will almost certainly be placed outside of the capital because sky-high rents have made the city unaffordable.
The town hall said it is seeing an average of 140 families a week becoming homeless in the borough with around half placed in basic, but costly, temporary accommodation.
Last year the local authority went £13million overbudget and is forecast to overspend by more than £10million this year, mainly due to the cost of housing the homeless in hostels and bed and breakfasts on a short term basis.
Brent leader Muhammed Butt told the Standard that there is a "tsunami of demand" that far outstrips supply despite the borough signing off the building of more new homes than anywhere in the country in 2022/23, and pledging 5,000 affordable properties by 2028,
He told the Standard: "We have to be honest with people. The likelihood is that people will end up outside of London. We are looking in places like High Wycombe, Milton, Keynes, Luton, Birmingham and even further afield.
"The main reason for going further afield is the affordability. When people are capped at the local housing allowance, which is set at 2011 levels, and have the added issues of capped benefits, or lower paid employment, the affordability issue kicks in straight away.
"You could get a three-bed property in Brent about five years ago for £1500-a-month.
"If you could find something now for under £3000 you'll be lucky. You can't get it in Brent, you can't get it in London. So we have to look outside."
New Housing Secretary Angela Rayner last month unveiled an overhaul of planning rules to help deliver 1.5m new homes by 2029 and announced that local housing targets, watered down by the Conservatives, would become mandatory again.
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However, Mr Butt argued that in the short term London councils cannot build themselves out of the crisis. The average waiting time for a social home in Brent is currently 14 years and there are more than 33,000 people on the list.
The council is now writing to the hundreds of families it has placed in temporary accommodation as part of its "Find a place you can afford" campaign.
It urges households to consider finding a cheaper rented home outside London themselves, rather than being stuck in temporary accommodation for months only to be moved to the private rented sector somewhere outside the city anyway.
It follows Redbridge council launching its “Home Truths” campaign earlier this month after its short-term housing bill for families increasingly unable to afford rocketing rents reached £52million last year.
The east London town hall has found properties for 1,000 people in areas such as Coventry, Essex, the East Midlands and Scunthorpe where housing is cheaper.
Meanwhile Newham town hall has warned it is facing “considerable financial pressures” because of its temporary accommodation bill for homeless families and without support it “could face an unprecedented budget gap of £175 million” by 2026.
Mr Butt concedes it is difficult to tell people they cannot afford to live in London anymore, but insists that being placed outside of the capital will mean most get a higher quality home and more space.
"It's heartbreaking because Brent is such a diverse community," he said.
"Brent may have been their home for the last 10, 20, 30 years, and they feel that affinity with it.
"Having to move out, leaving their friends, leaving their family, leaving work, leaving school, leaving their support networks. It's not great.
"The number of people who write into me, that phone me up, honestly they start crying, breaking down, because they've had to move out. It's truly heartbreaking, and I definitely wouldn't want to be in that kind of situation.
"Temporary accommodation is one of the worst forms of accommodation that people could live in. It's costly, basic, sometimes you don't even have a kitchen or bathroom. You have to share all that. It's not the right environment to bring up yourself, let alone the children. So that's why we do need to have those honest conversations and say to people, this is going to be the best solution for you.
"It's going to be the best way to get out of this temporary accommodation and improve your outcomes, improve your lives, give you the stability that you actually need."
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