GOVERNMENT measures will do nothing to help the 160,000 children who will wake up homeless this Christmas, experts have said.

A senior Labour MP told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last week that many of these youngsters were being forced into temporary accommodation due to his government’s decision to freeze the Local Housing Allowance (LHA).

The LHA determines the maximum amount that can be claimed by people renting from a private landlord.

Housing, communities and local government committee chairwoman Florence Eshalomi told Sir Keir the government’s extra funding for homelessness was “effectively redundant if you aren’t dealing with the root cause of why people are being forced into temporary accommodation, including freezing the LHA allowance.”

She spoke a day after official figures showed private rental costs in Britain had grown by a near record 9.1 per cent across the year.

The Prime Minister insisted he understood the impact of freezing the LHA but wasn’t going to redo the Autumn Budget.

Chartered Institute of Housing senior policy and practice officer Megan Hinch told the Morning Star: “Whilst the government has announced additional funding for homelessness prevention and shown a welcome dedication to increasing the supply of social homes, this will not help the 160,000 children who will be waking up homeless this Christmas.

“There are some things the government should do immediately to help homeless families, including reforming LHA to ensure it accurately reflects the true cost of renting.”

She also said scrapping the two-child benefit cap and abolishing the “no recourse to public funds” rule would allow families the opportunity to leave temporary accommodation and lift a significant portion of children out of poverty.

“As the spending review approaches, we urge the government to address the critical needs of the homeless households currently in temporary accommodation,” she said.

“This must be paired with bold plans in the forthcoming housing strategy to boost the supply of affordable homes and end the homelessness crisis once and for all.”

A spokeswoman for campaign group Momentum said: “Labour supporters have been subjected to the pathetic spectacle of Labour ministers begging for investment from predatory companies like BlackRock, while the government continually refuses to tax the rich and fails to meet the most elementary expectations of a Labour government.

“This is having unconscionable consequences, like the continuation of child homelessness in the sixth richest economy in the world.”