CIH, NHF and Housing Forum have signed open letter to Angela Rayner
A new coalition has called on the government to formalise local authority reporting on temporary accommodation (TA) in an open letter to the housing secretary Angela Rayner.
The 165,000 Reasons campaign has asked Whitehall to require planning committee reports to include a standard statement setting out the number of local households and children living in TA, the authority’s annual expenditure on TA, and recent changes in these figures where available.
Andy Burnham’s government has pledged to increase affordable housing and tackle homelessness as a priority.
Earlier this week, the prime minister called on the sector to get get rough sleepers off the street by Christmas, while Rayner confirmed that new homes near train stations will be subject to a default ‘yes’ under revisions to planning rules.
“Alongside these ambitions we believe there is a simple opportunity to strengthen planning decision-making by ensuring the consequences of housing shortages are more visible throughout the planning process,” the group wrote.
The government’s latest homelessness statistics show the number of families living in TA reached a record high on 31 March 2026.
It has also suggested including the number of people on housing waiting lists or homeless and the proportion of 20-40 year olds living with parents or in shared housing in the reports “to further raise the salience of housing shortages.”
Planning committee reports already routinely include information on environmental impacts, infrastructure, heritage and viability.
The coalition added: “While planning alone cannot solve the temporary accommodation crisis, it should not be divorced from its consequences. Embedding temporary accommodation data within planning committee reports would be a simple, proportionate and low-cost reform that ensures the realities of England’s housing emergency are consistently recognised within local decision making.”
The Chartered Institute of Housing, Home Builders Federation, Land Promoters & Developers Federation, Royal Town Planning Institute, RIBA, Housing Forum and National Housing Federation have signed the letter.
165,000 Reasons Campaign was founded in May 2026 by Nick Kilby, chair of communications consultancy Cratus Group
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