HUNDREDS of children were living in temporary accommodation in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole during the last national lockdown, figures show.

Last winter, the Government instructed people to stay in their homes in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19, but at least 126 families with children were without a permanent place to live when lockdown lifting began in spring.

Experts are now calling for more social housing to be built in a bid to prevent youngsters spending their early years in "grossly insecure" and poor-quality accommodation.

Data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government shows that there were 276 children among the families in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole staying in temporary accommodation on March 31.

The figures include 18 families with children staying in hostel or refuge style accommodation and eight in bed and breakfast facilities.

Local authorities should only place families in bed and breakfast facilities as a last resort and then only for a maximum of six weeks, but one household in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole had lived in B&B accommodation for longer.

A BCP Council spokesperson said: “Our current strategy to prevent homelessness is done through an excellent multi agency response, with joined up work with our many statutory and voluntary sector partners across the BCP Homelessness Partnership.

“276 children represents around 120 individual families, which all have dedicated support workers allocated to them, helping them move into settled accommodation as quickly as possible.

“During the period specified, over 300 families and over 600 children, have been prevented from becoming homeless and are now living in suitable safe settled accommodation.

“Where we are unable to prevent homelessness, we continue our work through our management of council owned temporary accommodation to assist those and avoid the costly and unsatisfactory bed and breakfast accommodation.

“Our existing buildings have also been converted into family hostels and we have recently increased our capacity, thinking ahead by planning additional schemes too.

“We are clear in our approach that bed and breakfasts are not an ideal environment for homeless families, especially those that have children within them.

Stark figures show that three in every 1,000 households in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole were in temporary accommodation in March and almost 120,000 children across England had no permanent home.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said thousands of children were paying the price over a failure to build enough social housing in the UK.

She said: "Without a home, children are spending their vital early years trapped in grossly insecure and often poor-quality temporary accommodation.

"We know from our own services and research that living in one room in a homeless B&B or hostel, with precious little space to sleep, eat or play, can seriously harm a child’s wellbeing and development.

“The bottom line is you cannot solve homelessness without enough homes that people can actually afford to live in.”

“Any families worried about losing their home can get free advice and support by contacting bcphousingadvice@bcpcouncil.gov.uk”