Crawley's homeless placed in temporary accommodation has more than doubled in three years

During a meeting of the full council, leader Michael Jones said that, as of September, 355 households were being supported – 75 of them outside the borough.

In September 2019 the figure was 167.

He told the meeting: “Until this year, the main reason was always family exclusion but it’s now far and away people losing their private rented accommodation through evictions.”

On top of that, staff are working with 667 people/families who are in difficulty but not yet at the stage of declaring themselves homeless.

In the lead-up to the pandemic, that figure stood at 177.

Mr Jones said: “[The council] has a solid record of looking after residents – and rough sleepers are in single figures currently.

“But that’s because the council has urgent arrangements to put a roof over the heads of those who qualify.”

But a report to the meeting said the supply of temporary accommodation available to the council was reducing

Reasons included space being taken by people placed there by other housing authorities and space being taken up due to refugee bridging – the use oftemporary accommodation while a family’s needs are assessed.

Some hotels were simply unwilling to take in anyone.

With an increase in demand has come increasing costs.

Mr Jones described a £900,000 overspend predicted in the already substantial budget allocated for temporary accommodation this year – adding: “Because of how bad the problem is, however, we will have to adjust this to £1.2m – and that’s assuming it doesn’t get worse.”