Ministers could ban London councils ‘dumping’ homeless families miles away

Enfield Civic Centre. Enfield is one of the councils that has used Reloc8, a company that specialises in moving homeless families out of the capital. Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

Some London councils pay millions of pounds to intermediary companies to provide often unfurnished flats or houses more than 200 miles from the capital.

Last year, the Guardian reported that about a dozen local authorities had spent more than £140m buying properties to house homeless people outside the capital, including as far away as Liverpool and Coventry.

A Derbyshire-based firm called Reloc8, which specialises in moving homeless families out of the capital, has been paid about £2m by two local authorities, Croydon and Enfield, to facilitate these moves.

Sophie Earnshaw, a strategic litigation solicitor at the housing charity Shelter, said companies such as Reloc8 offered councils a “quick fix” but were benefiting financially from the housing crisis.

She added: “We cannot allow private companies to cash in on the housing emergency, and councils’ desperation to house people, if it means struggling families are left paying the price.”

In a statement responding to the Guardian’s initial reporting, Reloc8 said that it had “many success stories over the years” involving those who had been moved.

The total number of homeless families dispatched across England is not known, as several London councils do not keep a central tally. However, official figures show that the number moved out of London has doubled in the past two years – up from 670 in the year to March 2023 to 1,300 in the year to March 2025. The true figure is believed to be higher.

London Councils, which represents the capital’s 32 boroughs, said most out-of-London placements were to counties bordering the capital and that it had met local authorities in north-east England to discuss the issue.

The Guardian has been told of one domestic abuse victim who was placed in a property 200 miles from London, where she was surrounded by drunk and aggressive men. The woman was so fearful of those living nearby that she eventually ran away.

Bo Bottomley, of the domestic abuse charity Refuge, said: “The increase in unsuitable housing offers means survivors have no choice but to stay in refuges for longer, creating a cycle in which other survivors are unable to access emergency refuge accommodation due to the shortage of spaces.”

Charities said councils often did not consider the homeless person’s cultural and religious needs. One Muslim woman, a migrant, was sent by a London council to a predominantly white village in the north-east of England, only to find the nearest mosque was one-and-a-half hours away by bus.