A record 135,580 households in England are living in temporary accommodation, including 177,530 children. Many are in hotel rooms and B&Bs that were never meant to be homes. Councils spent £2.93 billion on temporary accommodation in 2025/26, and with budgets and borrowing already stretched, costs are rising faster than they can respond.
That’s why we were glad to contribute to the Local Authority Toolkit for Relocatable Temporary Accommodation on Meanwhile Use Land, launched by Building Better: Community of Practice (BB:CoP). As one of the modular housing partners featured in the toolkit, we’ve seen how much councils need practical, trusted guidance to move these schemes forward.
What is the toolkit?
The toolkit is an end-to-end guide to help local authorities use leasing models to deliver high-quality temporary homes on land awaiting long-term development.
It builds on schemes already delivered in Havering and Bristol, which have shown that quality, relocatable homes on under-used land can transform living conditions and outcomes for families in temporary accommodation. The toolkit gives other councils the legal, financial and delivery detail they need to take a scheme from concept to completion.
What it helps councils to do
- Secure best value for the public sector, reducing overall costs to both local and national government.
- Work within constrained borrowing capacity
- Avoid long-term financial commitments, so it complements permanent social housing rather than replacing it.
- Take a coordinated, standardised approach that can be repeated at scale
Case Study: Havering
Havering is one of the schemes the toolkit draws on, and we’re proud to be delivering it in partnership with Wates Residential and Havering Council.
The project involves the manufacture and installation of 18 modular homes at Waterloo and Queen Street in Romford. The homes sit on land earmarked for future regeneration and are designed to be relocated, giving Havering families in temporary accommodation a safe, comfortable home in the meantime. They also help the council reduce its reliance on costly hotel and hostel accommodation.
Havering shows what the toolkit sets out to achieve: temporary accommodation that is high-quality, relocatable and delivered in partnership, on land that would otherwise sit idle.
Why this matters to us
As a modular housing provider, we believe good temporary accommodation should be well-built, relocatable and right for the families who live in it. The long-term answer to the housing crisis is more permanent, genuinely affordable homes (see our Residential page for more info on our permanent use modular homes). An estimated 90,000 additional social rent homes a year for 15 years are needed, and that will take time. Until then, councils need options that improve people’s lives now, at a cost the public purse can sustain.
Behind every statistic is a family whose life is on hold: children without stability, parents trying to rebuild, and households facing uncertainty every day. Better temporary homes won’t solve the crisis on their own, but they can make a real difference to the families living through it.
Download the toolkit
The toolkit was developed through the Building Better Community of Practice with a consortium of industry experts, alongside local authorities and housing specialists.
If you work in a local authority, this toolkit was built for you, and it’s free for everyone.
