Ten families are currently being put up in Bed and Breakfast accommodation outside the district by the district council, it has been revealed. 

While ten households with children are in B&Bs in Slough, at least four of those families will be back in High Wycombe before Christmas, Wycombe District Council’s housing chief has insisted. 

The revelation comes after Cllr Julia Wassell said she was “concerned” that homeless families with young children were being placed outside the district, and highlighted a “golden opportunity” for the council to prevent this from happening by providing new temporary accommodation in High Wycombe town centre as an alternative to Saunderton Lodge. 

A new “modular building” has been mooted for Desborough Road car park amid concerns that the district council’s current accommodation – the isolated Saunderton Lodge – is becoming unfit for purpose. 

The new building – if it is granted planning permission – will provide dozens more units for homeless families. 

Cllr Julia Langley, cabinet member for housing, said: “Ten households with children are currently staying in Bed and Breakfast in Slough at this moment in time, but please be advised this does change on a daily and weekly basis. 

“These families have been in bed and breakfast for an average of four weeks. We do have some more properties released at Daws Hill so I envisage that we will be moving at least four families back into the district for Christmas. 

“[The modular build] is subject to planning permission and when hopefully it is completed, it will increase our capacity to house more and to try and do away with bed and breakfast, which we know is very expensive.”