The cost of providing temporary accommodation for homeless families and individuals reached more than £1bn for the year to April, government figures show.
The bill has increased by 9 per cent over the past year and by 78 per cent over five years.
A third of the total was spent on emergency B&Bs, which according to housing charity Shelter, are “some of the worst places for families with children to live”.
The amount spent on B&Bs has increased by 111 per cent over five years due to a lack of more affordable accommodation.
The Department for Work and Pensions provided £806m of the funding for temporary accommodation during 2018/19, but councils had to plug the remaining £294m gap from their own budgets.
The amount councils spent from their own budget on temporary accommodation has increased by 123 per cent in the last five years, according to Shelter.
The charity’s chief executive Polly Neate says: “These figures are a shocking, yet entirely preventable consequence of our housing emergency.
“If consecutive governments had built the genuinely affordable social homes that are needed, fewer people would be homeless, and we would not be wasting vast sums on unsuitable temporary accommodation.
“What’s even more shameful is that so much of this public money is lining the pockets of unscrupulous private landlords, who can charge desperate councils extortionate rates for grim B&Bs, because there’s nowhere else for families to go.
“No family should have to live in a tiny room where there’s nowhere to even cook a meal, or any safe space for their children to play.”
She adds: “This is a crisis we cannot allow politicians to ignore during this election. Social housing must be at the heart of every manifesto, and all parties must to commit to at least 90,000 new social homes a year over the next parliament.”
