In the meantime, let’s turn our attention to the economic doom spiral being created for local councils by England’s unaffordable housing crisis. Put simply, local councils are spiralling because more and more people are becoming homeless. But because the number of people in need of support is rising, the cost of temporary accommodation is going up, too. The problem is that both private rents and the rent that private temporary accommodation providers are charging have gone up substantially since 2011. Failing to invest in affordable social housing is a completely false economy.