An ‘absolutely staggering’ number of families facing homelessness in Windsor and Maidenhead are being housed in Slough, a councillor has said.

As many as 177 households from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead are in temporary accommodation outside the area – with 137 of them in Slough. That’s according to figures reported to councillors in the Royal Borough last week.

Andrew Durrant, the director responsible for housing at the council, said a rise in people needing temporary accommodation meant placing people outside their areas is not ‘untypical’ for councils.

He said: “At the moment the demand on housing stock is such that we have to search far and wide to identify suitable areas to place our clients into, with those rising amounts of people needing to come into temporary accommodation unfortunately.”

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All councils have a duty to take steps to prevent people living in their areas from becoming homeless. But councils across the UK are facing rising demand for temporary accommodation – and often struggle to find places for people to go.

Of the 279 households that the Royal Borough has placed in temporary accommodation, only 102 – some 36 per cent of the total 279 – are within the council’s boundaries.

It comes as Slough Borough Council is also struggling to find temporary accommodation for its homeless families. Slough council says it is dealing with ‘a number of large families that require multiple emergency accommodations’.

A report to Royal Borough councillors said that ‘rising demand and reliance on housing providers and the private rented sector are driving up costs’.

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It added that the council is beginning work to find more homes in the private sector. The report was discussed by councillors at a meeting on Wednesday November 13.

Councillor Gurch Singh asked Mr Durrant to say more about what the council is doing to tackle the problem.

He said: “A very low percentage – 36 per cent of households currently in temporary accommodation in the borough. That is absolutely staggering – 64 per cent of residents we’re housing outside the borough.”

Mr Durrant appeared to suggest that finding more privately rented homes could still mean housing people outside the borough in places that are ‘value for money’ and ‘more suitable’.

He said: “For some people there’s different needs and different reasons we’d want to use either existing stock or other locations.”

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But he also said the council is also working with social housing providers to find and produce more homes inside the borough.

He said: “We’re looking to our contracted partners to look to procure housing within the private rented sector.

“It’s part of a package of different things that we’re starting to work hard at to deliver more housing available within the borough.

“And we’re working with our registered providers particularly Housing Solutions to deliver some additional properties.”