London boroughs have spent more than half a billion pounds on emergency housing since 2010, a series of Freedom of Information requests have revealed.

Haringey LBC has spent the most on emergency housing, some £197m, since the last general election, followed by Westminster City Council which has spent £111m and Enfield LBC with a £59m bill, the research shows.

Other boroughs with high emergency housing  costs include Kensington and Chelsea RLBC which has paid £53m, Newham LBC with a £33m outlay and Islington LBC's £33m bill.

The findings also revealed more than 180,000 people were on local authority housing lists in the capital.

Shadow housing minister, Emma Reynolds, said the figures show the scale of the Government's failure to tackle the housing shortage which was central to the cost-of-living crisis.

‘The number of families with children living in bed and breakfasts is at a 10-year high which is causing misery for them but is also costing the taxpayer more with local authorities having to spend more on emergency accommodation because of the Government's failure,' Ms Reynolds said.

She rested the Labour Party's recent pledge to  double housebuilding to 200,000 homes a year by 2020 to tackle the crisis.

In response, housing minister, Kris Hopkins, said homelessness was lower now than in 27 of the previous 30 years and that the Coalition had provided a £470m safety net above the general grant to councils over the current spending review period to combat homelessness and repossessions.

‘Net current expenditure on homelessness by local authorities in England was £298m in 2009-10, £343m in 2010-11, £305m in 2011-12 and £342m in 2012-13,' Mr Hopkins said.

‘This covers expenditure on temporary accommodation, homelessness prevention, homelessness support and administration,' he added.