London councils could be banned from “dumping” homeless households outside of the capital, it has been revealed.
It comes after official figures suggest around 1,300 families were relocated from London to other places in England in the year to March 2025, up from 670 in the 12 months to March 2023.
Families have been placed in cheap homes in some of the poorest parts of the country, including Blackpool and Hartlepool.
MPs claimed vulnerable people, including women fleeing abuse, were being “coerced” into choosing between rough sleeping or moving out of London.
Charities say that some women have returned to their abuser as a result of not wanting to move up north, while others have been staying in emergency refuges.
Now, ministers are planning to clampdown on sending homeless families far away from the capital, The Guardian reports.
Jonathan Brash, the Labour MP for Hartlepool, told the newspaper that London local authorities were “dumping a crisis on to northern communities”.
“It is undoubtedly the case that this kind of behaviour is increasing tension in towns like Hartlepool as local people face massive challenges with housing and other public services. It is ripping at the social fabric of the community I represent,” he added.
Florence Eshalomi, the chair of the Commons housing select committee, has suggested that a limit should be placed on the distance councils can move family.
Alison McGovern, the homelessness minister, said the practice was a “real worry” and said the government was ready to “clamp down on the worst form of it”.
A review is currently underway.
A family last year won a £1,100 payout from Enfield council after they were moved to “the other end of the country” and left to live in “unsuitable accommodation” for three months.
An investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) found the town hall was at fault for “disrupting” the lives of the mother and her two children as they fled domestic abuse.
Any potential ban on moving families long distances is likely to have exceptions for people who need to leave London, depending on their circumstances.
Under the Housing Act, local authorities must “so far as reasonably practical” find accommodation in their borough.
If this is not possible and they need to be sent elsewhere, the council must legally notify the other local authority they are sending homeless people to.
But several London councils have been found to have acted unlawfully in recent years.
