Latest data suggests Enfield’s housing crisis is continuing to get worse with little end in sight, reports James Cracknell

The number of Enfield families with children being housed in bed and breakfast (B&B) types of temporary accommodation beyond the government’s six-week legal limit has hit 150.

In total, there are currently 247 Enfield children living in B&Bs, which includes any temporary accommodation where there are no cooking facilities or shared cooking or washing facilities – and in most cases means living in cheap hotels such as Enfield Travelodge.

While the number of families with children housed in B&Bs by Enfield Council beyond six weeks in April 2022 was just one, a year later this had risen exponentially to 113. Despite efforts to reduce the number, which has included a major U-turn on housing policy this summer as the council now looks to rehouse people in cheaper areas beyond the south-east of England, the latest data shows that 150 Enfield families are now exceeding the legal limit on B&B stays.

According to the government’s own legal guidance for local authorities, B&B accommodation “caters for very short-term stays only” because it “affords residents only limited privacy, and may lack or require sharing of important amenities, such as cooking and laundry facilities”. It further warns: “Living in B&B accommodation can be particularly detrimental to the health and development of children […] Housing authorities should, therefore, use B&B accommodation to discharge a duty to secure accommodation for applicants with family commitments only as a last resort and then only for a maximum of six weeks”.

In the longest known ongoing local case, a Palmers Green family made homeless from a house fire in August 2022 have remained living in hotels ever since, for well over a year. Disabled dad Piotr Rembikowski spoke to the Dispatch again last month and said he had “no hope” left.

The Dispatch has also previously met two Enfield families with young children that were forced to live at Travelodge hotels for several months earlier this year – the Ramazanis in March and the Brittens in June – before they were eventually rehoused by the council.

The latest figures on the extent of the housing crisis in Enfield were revealed in a council report published last month. It also showed that in the first quarter of 2023/24, 1,231 homeless applications to the council were made, up from 802 in the previous quarter.

The report says: “The proportion of households in B&B accommodation continues to increase as temporary accommodation providers exit the market.

“A new five-year strategy for the provision of accommodation to prevent homelessness and to meet our statutory homelessness duties was approved at the September 2023 cabinet meeting. It sets out a number of potential delivery options for constructing new temporary accommodation in Enfield, including building new homes using modular techniques, extending existing temporary accommodation blocks and repurposing general needs housing schemes.”

Enfield Council has repeatedly called on the government to help ease the housing crisis, including measures such as ending the three-year freeze on the Local Housing Allowance which sets local benefits levels, and a fresh call last week to ban ‘no fault’ evictions without further delay.

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