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“To tackle the shortage of suitable homes for older and disabled people, councils need greater planning powers and resources to hold developers to account, ensuring that they build the right homes in the right places needed by different groups within the local community."

“Councils want to work with government to build the housing we need, ensuring it is affordable, built in the right places and supported by the right infrastructure to serve the needs of local communities."

“The end to the eviction ban brought in to protect tenants during the pandemic has undoubtedly contributed to this rise in households threatened with homelessness from the private sector, and councils are eager to work with government on a plan to safeguard tenants."

“The slowdown in house-building caused by COVID-19 reinforces the urgent need for the Government to make housing a central part of the national recovery."

 “It is good that housebuilding is on the increase again, and that planning permissions were extended earlier in the pandemic to enable developments to continue when safe to do so."

“The last time the country built more than 300,000 homes a year was 1977/78, when councils built 44 per cent of them."

“Behind every instance of homelessness lies an individual tragedy and councils want to work with the new government to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place and support those affected.

Local Government Association’s Housing spokesman, Cllr David Renard, responds to the latest homelessness statistics showing the number of households living in temporary accommodation.

“These figures highlight the extreme pressures homelessness services continue to be under, as a result of rising demand driven by a severe shortage of social housing."

“Councils have lost out on enough homes to house the population of Oxford in the last five years, and we urgently need a model of Right to Buy that actually allows councils to build more homes, in order to increase the opportunities for families."