FIGURES obtained by Personal Injury Claims UK show that Reading Borough Council has spent more than £5m on temporary housing in the last three years.
It follows an investigation into the number of households given temporary accommodation and council spending on rehousing.
Figures obtained through freedom of information requests have shown that in 2021/2022 the number of households in temporary accommodation in Reading was 249.
In 2022/2023, it jumped to 457, remaining steady at 451 in 2023/2024.
Temporary accommodation (TA) cost the council more than £2.8m in that year alone, with total costs reaching just under £5.2m since from April 2022 up to April this year.
TA is accommodation secured by a local housing authority under their statutory homelessness functions.
When authorities run out of immediate space in specific TA premises, other types of accommodation are used to house people such as hotels and B&Bs.
Hotels are one the main forms of TA, which were provided to 50,546 people across England in the past year.
This represents a rise of 10% from last year, and across the UK the number of homeless people in local authority-provided TA rose to record levels.
More information about Personal Injury Claims UK is available via: personalinjuryclaimsuk.org.uk
