London boroughs are home to families that never fly the nest
AS THE supply of housing fails to keep up with demand, an increasing number of London families are finding themselves sharing homes, often with an older generation of relatives.
According to figures from the 2011 census released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday, the number of such “concealed families” has risen by 70 per cent in the 10 years from 2001’s national survey.
London is hit particularly hard by the effect: six of the seven local authorities in which over five per cent of families are concealed are in the capital, with the highest incidences in the poorer boroughs of east and west London. Newham tops the list, with 7.5 per cent of families in these shared homes.
Concealed families are typically arrangements like single parents living with their children in their own mother or father’s parental home. However, the number of couples with children living in the home of the child’s grandparents are increasingly common.
In 2001, there were 170,000 family groups in such circumstances across the UK, but there are now 289,000.