Activist Kwajo Tweneboa pleaded with ministers to take urgent action after new analysis showed kids who are frequently moved around during their school years do worse in exams
Child homelessness has a “heartbreaking” impact on how well kids do in school, a top housing campaigner has said.
Kwajo Tweneboa pleaded with ministers to take urgent action after new analysis showed kids who are frequently moved around during their school years do worse in their exams. Grim research released by the Children’s Commissioner today showed just 11% of children who move home more than 10 times between Reception and Year 11 achieved five GCSE passes, including in English and maths – compared to 65% of those who never move house.
Mr Tweneboa said he is “not confident at all” that the Government’s housing plans will fix the problem. He questioned whether Labour’s £2billion announcement for 18,000 new social homes was “dressed up” as it lacked details on them being “genuinely affordable”.
The housing expert recounted the report’s devastating stories of kids growing up in properties with rat infestations, cockroaches, damp and mould. He told Sky News: “It’s heartbreaking because it shows – it proves – the direct correlation now between housing insecurity, homelessness and educational outcomes, and it negatively impacts kids up and down the country.
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“We know that we’ve got record numbers of homeless kids across England, 164,000, and it’s directly impacting their education now. For a lot of these kids, they’re already from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the biggest – the single, biggest – opportunity for them to escape a life of poverty is through education.”
According to homelessness charity, Shelter, more than 164,000 children are currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation in England. Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza’s research found that more than 75,000 children – 12% of all Year 11 children – moved at least three times over their time at school.
Dame Rachel said children have told her about living in homes that are in disrepair, with damp, and sometimes with no running water or toilet. “In 2025 that’s shameful,” she said. She recently visited Surrey Square Primary School in Southwark, where 25% of pupils live in temporary accommodation, to speak to pupils about their experiences. The children spoke to her about overcrowded rooms without a bed to sleep in and a lack of basic amenities. Many described feeling ashamed and unable to invite friends over.
“Children are paying the price of growing up in poverty – they are more likely than adults to live in cold, damp or overcrowded homes,” Dame Rachel said. “I want decision makers to talk more about what it feels like for a child to be in temporary housing: that might mean having to share a bathroom with strangers, not feeling safe to go outside alone, having no space to study or play, or living miles out of town without access to public transport.”
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