Almost 80,000 families a year could be homeless by 2020, warns former Labour housing minister

'The Conservatives’ record on housing is six years of failure, and in no area is this more painfully clear than homelessness'

Just under 43,000 families made homeless across all sectors in the last year (Getty)

Almost 80,000 families a year in England face the prospect of becoming homeless by 2020 unless Theresa May abandons controversial cuts to housing benefit and support, it has been claimed.

The projection, which includes 60,000 households with children, is in addition to those sleeping rough on the streets. The new statistics will likely alarm campaigners who have already warned the country’s most vulnerable people would not be able to afford the rent on their homes if the Government goes ahead with the budget cuts.

John Healey, who resigned from Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench as the shadow housing minister following the European Union referendum, has published his projections, provided to The Independent, in an attempt to persuade Ms May’s new administration to abandon cuts to housing support and housing benefit pencilled in by the former Chancellor George Osborne.

The bleak projections from Mr Healey are based on the average annual increase of homeless households in Britain between 2009 and 2016, which, he claims, currently stands at 6.3 per cent. If the trend continues over the next five years, he adds, this would mean 78,393 homelessness cases by 2020-21.

Mr Healey, a former local government minister, said: “The Conservatives’ record on housing is six years of failure, and in no area is this more painfully clear than homelessness.

“We should all be ashamed that in one of the richest countries in the world there has been such a huge increase in the number of people who are homeless over the last six years. These figures are a stark warning for Theresa May not to continue with the same decisions on housing and social security that have failed so badly over the last six years.”

Mr Healy added that at the “top of her in-tray” should be exempting homelessness hostels and other specialist accommodation from the planned £1 billion of cuts. “I first urged minister to exempt specialist homes from these cuts back in December, but they have not listened so far," he added.

“Theresa May should also take the opportunity the growing homelessness crisis to strengthen the law to help prevent homelessness happening in the first place, as Labour has done in Wales.”

A Government spokesman, however, said to The Independent: “This is unnecessary scaremongering. The truth is statutory homelessness remains less than half the 2003-04 peak, but we know one person without a home is one too many.

“That’s why we are investing over £500m to both tackle homelessness and prevent it happening in the first place. We also continue to spend around £90bn a year on working age benefits, to ensure a strong safety net for the most vulnerable. The causes of homelessness are varied and complex, so across Government we are considering how to improve services, including around mental health and addiction support.”