For people experiencing homelessness, a bed for the night provides immediate safety. What happens afterwards is a harder question — and it's one that housing charities want Britain's government to address in Wednesday's Budget.

"What we don't want to see is a bed every night every Christmas," says Christa Maciver, Director of Campaigns and Social Change at the Manchester-based Justlife Foundation.

"You want to be able to solve it," she says.

Councils in England spent £2.93 billion, approximately $3.9 billion, on temporary accommodation in 2025–26, according to housing charity Shelter — an 88% rise over five years.

At the end of March, 135,580 households were living in temporary accommodation, including more than 177,000 children.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to end the need for rough sleeping and expand council housebuilding, using unused public land.

In his Labour conference speech, Burnham proposed giving councils greater scope to return empty properties to use and acquire rented homes where owners refuse to address poor conditions.

Justlife wants those ambitions matched by measures that help people keep their homes now.

The charity wants Local Housing Allowance rates raised to reflect current rents and changes to how councils are reimbursed for temporary accommodation.

"A lot of that money could be spent on prevention," Maciver says. "It could be spent on other things to make the system run better for the people who are in it."

Housing conditions present another challenge. Government findings published this year, based on the 2024–25 English Housing Survey, indicate around 1.4 million households in England were living in homes with damp.

Campaigner Lisa Malyon, co-founder of the UK Centre for Mould Safety, wants investment in existing properties and stronger standards for damp and ventilation work.

Her campaigning followed her family's own experience of illness while living in a water-damaged home.

"My daughter became incredibly sick, I was rushed to hospital and we didn't realise it was our home that was making us so poorly," she says.

"What needs to happen is we need a regulated damp industry, a regulated ventilation industry."

She also wants financial support to improve housing conditions: "What I'd really like to see out of the Budget is a pot of money to help (build) healthy homes."

Billions have already been spent to try and resolve this crisis, and the new Budget may commit more.

The test will be whether the money can deliver lasting change and affordable, safe homes, for all who need them.