Huntingdonshire District Council spent more than £6m on temporary accommodation for families, an investigation by Newsquest has revealed.

Figures obtained via Freedom of Information requests laid bare the extent of homelessness in the district.

The local authority spent £6,307,354 on temporary housing for more 3,251 households between 2017-18 and 2023-24.

In that time, the annual cost has increased by 84 per cent, rising from more than £621,000 is 2017-18 to £1,145,897 in 2023-24.

It follows analysis by the Local Government Association which revealed the number of households living in temporary accommodation across the UK has risen by 89 per cent over the past decade.

Cllr Stephen Ferguson, executive councillor for customer services at Huntingdonshire District Council said: “Our first ambition is always to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place, by giving them as much support as possible to stay in their homes.

“By April, the council will have prevented almost 500 cases of homelessness in the preceding 12 months. This is better for the residents themselves and reduced the cost of providing temporary accommodation.

“As soon as we are aware of people who are homeless we aim to get them in temporary accommodation as soon as possible. During the past year we have been successful in keeping the number of households in temporary accommodation to less than 135."

He added: “Temporary accommodation is expensive, and although we manage to control the number of households in temporary accommodation through early intervention, there is always pressure on the system.

“The provision of more social housing should be a priority for any future government, not only to reduce the number of people in temporary accommodation and the time they spend there, but also to allow other Huntingdonshire residents to live happy, affordable, and sustainable lives.”