Every family deserves more than just a roof over their head. They deserve the space to cook a meal, help with homework, celebrate milestones and build a routine that feels like home. Yet for thousands of families living in temporary accommodation, life is put on hold in unsuitable hotels and B&Bs, while councils spend billions every year on a system that was never designed to provide lasting solutions.
Space to Start is Places for People's response.
By transforming underutilised council-owned land into high-quality modular homes, Places for People is demonstrating a faster, more dignified alternative that gives families the stability they need sooner, while helping councils reduce reliance on costly temporary accommodation and reinvest public money into homes that create lasting value.
Space to Start shows that a better way already exists. By combining real lived experience with proven delivery, we are leading the way on tackling the temporary accommodation crisis - not by asking what could change, but by demonstrating what can be delivered today and scaled across the country.
The problem
· More than 134,000 families are living in temporary accommodation across England
England's councils are spending £2.8billion a year on temporary accommodation, with costs forecast to approach £4billion by 2030
Modular homes can be built up to 50% faster, and could save councils millions every year in rent. We want to work with councils to do this.
Teri’s story
Mum of three Teri Jackson from Bristol has faced the harsh reality of temporary accommodation.
In January 2024, she left a privately rented home she describes as “uninhabitable” and was placed in emergency accommodation, beginning a period of crippling instability living in hotels.
“For seven months I had no fixed address. There was nowhere I could cook or wash clothes and we ate takeaways every night. It was unhealthy and so expensive. For the last seven weeks, I was moved every Monday. I wouldn’t know where we were going until that morning. My son missed school and I had to take time off work.
This modular home will change everything. Just having somewhere we can properly live would mean the world while we wait for a permanent home.”
Find out more about Space to Start
Backing the Government's pledge to end rough sleeping, PfP wants to work with local authorities to redirect some of the £2.8billion spent every year on temporary accommodation into high-quality modular homes built on vacant council-owned sites.
Learn more about Space to Start