This is the number saved from homelessness, not the number of homeless

To make again a point we’ve made before.

The UK as a whole has far more people living in temporary accommodation than any other developed country, giving Britain the worst homelessness problem of any of its economic peers.

People in temporary accommodation are not the homeless. People in temporary accommodation are the people the welfare state has saved from homelessness.

Now, it could well be true - probably is as well - that those temporary homes are not what anyone particularly wants. Either at a societal level - we could/should do better - or among those living in them - they’d prefer better. But that is still the truth. These folk are not homeless and it’s the welfare state which has saved them from being so.

At which point perhaps we should go further. Note that the welfare state, the government, perhaps it’s local councils, aren’t doing very well at providing that relief from homelessness. That perhaps the system could be better.

Well, yes, perhaps it could be. But at that point you’re saying to people from the Adam Smith Institute that government’s not very good at doing things.

Yes? And?

Tim Worstall