Yet beneath the city’s gleaming skyline lies a less celebrated reality: ‘temporary housing’ that is anything but. Councils across England spent £2.29 billion on temporary housing last year, up nearly 30 per cent in only twelve months. When introduced, the obligation to provide temporary housing served as an emergency measure, a roof for a few nights while a proper home was found. Temporary housing, once emergency provision, has become a parallel housing system that fails both those it serves and the taxpayers who fund it. The money London spends on temporary accommodation could have instead been spent on building permanent housing in both the capital and across the country.