Instead of social housing, councils spend tens of millions on "temporary" hotels

Residents on waiting lists are being shunted between privately owned B&Bs, hotels and hostels. We filed Freedom of Information requests to two councils to find out the costs.

A Travelodge hotel in Derby. Ben Sutherland on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Over the last five years, Derbyshire County Council has spent £9,426,456 on temporary accommodation in hotels, hostels and B&B’s for people on social housing waiting lists, The Lead can disclose, while Leicester council has spent over £13,000,000 in the same period. The figures were confir…