Shelter shows scale of children’s needs

One in seven UK children are homeless or live in poor housing, research by Shelter reveals.

The study, published this week, says 1.6 million children in the UK live in housing that is unfit, overcrowded or temporary.

The report says that children in poor housing are nearly twice as likely as other children to leave school without any GCSEs or suffer from poor health, and they are more likely to feel unhappy about their family or say they do not enjoy living in their area.

Shelter said the government should build an extra 20,000 “social homes” a year to tackle the problem.

● Against the Odds