Local councils have spent over £31 million on incentives to landlords providing their properties for the homeless.
This is money handed to landlords they receive on top of housing benefit.
Manchester City Council alone has spent £3.35 million, followed by Enfield Council (£2.73m) and Ealing Council (£2.26m).
The research was carried out based on Freedom of Information requests from tenant campaign group Generation Rent, which argued that councils are giving private landlords too much to house vulnerable people.
Ben Twomey, chief executive at Generation Rent, said: “Everyone needs a home, it’s the foundation of our lives. But the rental market is like the wild west.
“Landlords are often a law unto themselves, rigging the system to line their own pockets at the expense of people experiencing homelessness and the local councils that are trying to house them.
“The soaring cost of renting and the government’s decision to freeze the Local Housing Allowance has put councils across the country in a near impossible position.
“In a desperate bid to avoid placing people in temporary accommodation, they’re forced to pay individual landlords sometimes tens of thousands of pounds just for them to agree to rent out their home. It’s a senseless waste of our public money.”
The Freedom of Information requests targeted all 32 London councils, in addition to 10 outside known for having homelessness issues.
In London, the 27 councils that responded spent over £24 million on landlord incentives in 24/25. This is an average spend of over £900,000 per council.
The last time data on landlord incentives was collected in the capital was 2018. Compared to 2018, the overall money spent by councils in London increased by over £8.5million (54%).
Southwark Council made the highest individual payment to a landlord, at £15,400, followed by Camden Council (£13,500) and Hammersmith and Fulham Council (£13,000).
Twomey added: “The government’s housebuilding targets are welcome, but these findings show urgent action is needed to address the widening lack of affordable homes.
“The Chancellor must unfreeze Local Housing Allowance in the upcoming Autumn Budget to give renters claiming benefits relief from towering household costs.
“Meanwhile, the government also must give Metro Mayors the power to limit rent increases through the upcoming Devolution Bill, allowing them to slam the brakes on sky-high rents in cities across England.”