Overview
- RAMFEL’s new report, based on work with 493 people from January 2023 to February 2025, details overcrowded rooms, locked windows, infestations and food many residents rated as really bad.
- GP letters cited in the report warn of malnutrition and dangerous weight loss among children, with examples of families counting multiple rats in their rooms and meals arriving burnt or still frozen.
- The charity calculates combined profits of £380m for the three main providers since 2019, as MPs on the Home Affairs Committee branded the system failed, chaotic and expensive.
- The Home Office confirms it has clawed back £74m from providers and is considering temporary use of military sites at Crowborough in East Sussex and Cameron in Inverness.
- Despite ministerial pledges to end hotel use, RAMFEL found the total number of hotels has fallen by only three since Labour took office, and campaigners urge a shift to community-based, publicly accountable housing and permission to work.