1.6m Children Living In Bad Housing

One in seven children are growing up homeless or are living in “bad housing”, a new report has claimed. The research by homelessness charity Shelter says the figure amounts to 1.6 million youngsters in the UK.

Its report “Against the Odds”, which marks the 40th anniversary of the charity’s launch, used analysis of existing Government statistics to come up with the new figure.

Shelter also found that in England, children in bad housing are twice as likely to leave school with no GCSEs.

The charity classes bad housing as temporary, overcrowded or unfit accommodation.

The report also found that 40,000 young people aged 16 to 18-years-old who live in bad housing in England have no GCSEs.

And almost 310,000 children in bad housing in Britain are suffering long-term illness or disability, the research said.

Against the Odds also reveals that, compared with other children, youngsters in bad housing are twice as likely to be persistently bullied and have almost double the chance of suffering from poor health.

Each year, more than 57,000 children living in bad housing in Britain are excluded from school, the report also said.

The charity said it is now calling on the Chancellor Gordon Brown to fund 20,000 extra social homes each year to give children the chance of a better future.