Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Children are living in shipping containers as scale of England's housing crisis is revealed
The home of Corelle Tertullien, 26, where she lives with her two children aged two and nine months, in Bordars Walk, Hanwell, west London, where converted shipping containers have been re-purposed for use as temporary accommodation

MINISTERS should hang their heads in shame at new figures that reveal thousands of children in England are growing up in shipping containers and other types of temporary shelter, Labour has said.

Shadow housing secretary John Healey spoke out after the children’s commissioner, an official appointed by government to promote and protect children’s rights, warned that more than 210,000 children now have no permanent home.

In a new report, Bleak Houses, published today, commissioner Anne Longfield said: “Something has gone very wrong with our housing system when children are growing up in B&Bs, shipping containers and old office blocks.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
An aerial view of housing in south west London, July 31, 2026
Housing Crisis / 25 August 2026
25 August 2026

Social Housing Action Campaign blasts PM’s decision to break commitment to allocate 100% of Affordable Homes Programme to social rents