Brighton temporary accommodation hits 2,027 households

There were 2,027 Brighton & Hove households living in temporary accommodation on 31 March 2026, according to figures the government published yesterday. That is 494 more households than a year earlier, a rise of 32% in twelve months, and it gives the city the highest rate of temporary accommodation of any council in England outside London.

The numbers come from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s detailed local authority homelessness tables, released on 13 August 2026. Table TA1 of that release records what each council reported at the end of the quarter, and it is the only source that puts every English council on the same measure on the same day.

How Brighton & Hove compares

Raw totals favour big cities, so the official tables also give a rate. Brighton & Hove has around 125,000 households, and 2,027 of them in temporary accommodation works out at 16.2 per 1,000 households.

That is nearly three times the England figure of 5.5 per 1,000 and close to four times the South East average of 4.2. Of the 284 councils that reported a rate this quarter, Brighton & Hove ranks 19th, and every authority above it is a London borough: Newham is highest at 59.8 per 1,000, followed by Westminster on 48.6 and Hackney on 32.8.

Outside London the nearest comparisons are along the same coast. Hastings recorded 15.1 per 1,000 (623 households), Crawley 13.1 (618 households) and Worthing 9.4 (488 households). One caveat belongs with that ranking: twelve councils did not submit figures for this quarter, among them Slough, Bristol and Basildon, so the comparison covers only the authorities that reported.

The trend is steeper here than nationally. Across England the total rose from 130,890 to 135,580 over the same twelve months, an increase of 3.6%. Brighton & Hove’s rose 32%. The city’s own count has climbed at every quarter it has reported since December 2024, when it stood at 1,414.

Two gaps are worth naming. Brighton & Hove did not submit a return for the quarters ending 30 June 2025 or 31 December 2025, so those points are blank in the national tables and the run of figures is not continuous.

Who is in it, and where

Of the 2,027 households, 882 include children, and 1,563 children were living in temporary accommodation in the city at the end of March. That is close to the council’s own estimate: its April Cabinet report put the figure at more than 2,100 households in emergency or temporary accommodation, “around 40% of whom include children” (Temporary Accommodation Transformation for Financial Sustainability, 23 April 2026). The council’s wording is broader than the statutory return, which is why the two totals differ slightly.

The breakdown by type of accommodation, from the same table:

• Private sector accommodation: 606 households (388 with children), the largest single category.
• Other accommodation, including private landlord and not known: 448 (212 with children).
• Nightly paid, privately managed, self-contained: 393 (170 with children). This is the most expensive form of provision and the one the council is trying hardest to reduce.
• Bed and breakfast, including shared annexes: 368, of which just one was a household with children, and none had been there beyond six weeks. The statistical release notes that the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2003 prohibits placing families in B&B except in an emergency, and then for no longer than six weeks. On that measure Brighton & Hove is clean, where 1,000 households across England were not.
• Council or housing association stock: 208 (111 with children).
• Hostels, reception centres, emergency units and refuges: 4.

The return also records 284 households out of area. The statisticians note that this count can include households placed in another council’s area as well as those owed a duty with no accommodation secured, so it should be read as an indicator rather than a precise count of families moved out of the city.

What the council is doing, and what it costs

Temporary accommodation is the council’s single biggest financial pressure. Its April Cabinet report forecast an overspend of around £6m in 2025/26, and set out an extra £11m committed in 2026/27 alongside £5m of agreed savings, with a further £5.4m of savings still to find by 2029/30.

The report also models what happens without change. Demand is growing by about 166 households a year, and on a “do nothing” basis the council expects roughly 664 more households by the end of its financial plan, taking the total to about 2,860 by 2029/30. Its alternative plan aims to hold growth to about 220 households, ending at about 2,440.

Part of that plan is already running. Cabinet agreed to keep using empty council homes as temporary accommodation from 19 January 2026 until 1 May 2027, with a maximum of 180 properties in scope at any point.

The newest measure is aimed at landlords. On 11 August the council opened an Energy Performance Grant Scheme for Landlords offering up to £7,500 per property to owners of Brighton & Hove homes currently rated EPC D or below. The condition is that the work brings the property to EPC C or above and the landlord then signs a three-year lease with the council, which uses the home as temporary accommodation. A landlord can put forward a maximum of three properties, the money is released when the lease is signed, and it becomes repayable if the lease ends early. Councillor Gill Williams, cabinet member for housing, called it “a win-win for our local housing market”.

The pressure is not only local. The council’s report cites Local Government Association figures showing that councils in England spent £1.27bn on temporary accommodation in 2024/25 but were reimbursed £911m, leaving an annual shortfall of nearly £360m, a gap it attributes to Local Housing Allowance rates that have not kept pace with what landlords actually charge.

What it means for you

If you are at risk of losing your home, contact the council before you have to leave rather than after. Its page on getting help if you are worried about losing your home is the route to a prevention duty, and the earlier the approach, the more options remain. Be realistic about what a placement looks like: only 208 of the 2,027 households in the March figures were in council or housing association stock, so it will not usually be a council flat.

If you are already in temporary accommodation, the council’s transformation plan means the mix is changing over the next three years, with a shift away from nightly paid rooms towards leased and council-owned homes. That is intended to mean fewer moves and better conditions, but the same report is candid that supply takes time to deliver.

If you are a landlord, the £7,500 grant is worth checking against the cost of the EPC work you may be facing anyway. Registration of interest comes first, and the council checks whether the property is suitable before a full application.

If you are trying to buy or rent here, the figures are the sharp end of the same market covered on our Brighton house prices page, where the city average sat at £403,999 in May 2026 while flats fell 3.6% over the year. High prices, a thin supply of genuinely affordable homes and frozen housing benefit rates are the three drivers the council itself names.

The next quarterly release, covering April to June 2026, is due from the department in the autumn. We will check whether Brighton & Hove reports it.