Bristol's Homelessness Crisis: How Green Priorities Left 3,903 People Without Homes.
How Bristol Green Party spent £10 million on Liveable Neighbourhoods while homelessness reached record levels in South West England.
You walk past them every day. Temple Meads. Park Street. Broadmead. Maybe you’ve stopped noticing. That’s what happens when homelessness becomes wallpaper in a city that thinks declaring climate emergencies counts as governance.
Here’s what the actual numbers say.
The Arithmetic They Won’t Do.
3,903 people are homeless in Bristol right now. One in 121 residents. 1,815 of them are children.
Bristol ranks 40th worst in England for homelessness. Highest in the South West. Across the region, 13,646 people—over 5,750 of them kids—will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation.
Some families have been in “temporary” accommodation since 1998. Twenty-six years. Children growing up knowing nothing else.
Bristol City Council spent £21.1 million on temporary accommodation in 2023/24. That’s £1.6 million monthly housing people in hotel rooms because there aren’t enough actual homes.
1,700 households stuck in limbo. Costing a fortune. Destroying childhoods.
Here’s what the Green Party decided was a better use of money.
£10 Million on Traffic Schemes Nobody Wanted.
West of England Combined Authority gave Bristol £10 million for Liveable Neighbourhoods in 2022. Traffic calming. Modal filters. Cycling infrastructure. The kind of shite that looks brilliant in manifestos.
Result? Barton Hill residents protesting against contractors. Congestion increasing. Thousands signing petitions.
May 2025, Green Council Leader Tony Dyer admitted to the BBC: “Do I personally regret? I think yes, I do.” Note - he only thinks he does!
£10 million on schemes so unpopular that the man who implemented them regrets it.
They didn’t stop. Tony Dyer proposed another £800,000 for South Bristol planning. Another £4 million from developer contributions for parks.
While homelessness increased 5%.
When you’re spending £1.6 million monthly on housing families in hotels, maybe traffic schemes shouldn’t be the priority. But that’s ideology—the future matters more than the present. Carbon neutrality by 2030 matters more than housing people today.
The £25 Million They Lost to Cardiff.
2011: The BBC moved Casualty from Bristol to Cardiff. £25 million annual economic impact gone.
2024: Council claimed The Bottle Yard Studios generated a £46.6 million impact. Refused to prove profitability. Freedom of Information requests denied. “Commercially sensitive.”
So they tried selling it. Spent £430,000. Three months exclusivity.
Nobody wanted it. Zero buyers.
Claimed “profitable” but wouldn’t show books. Needed “multi-million investment” but couldn’t afford it. Hit a “glass ceiling” but couldn’t explain why.
Cardiff’s got £25 million annual revenue from Casualty. Bristol’s got creative accounting that doesn’t survive FOI scrutiny.
That’s what happens when clueless fuckwits prioritise ideology over business.
The Housing Mathematics Breakdown.
The Green Party campaigned on building 1,000 affordable homes annually.
What they actually did: sold 1,222 existing council properties.
You cannot reduce homelessness by shrinking social housing stock. You cannot house people by selling the homes you’ve got.
Unless you’re operating where ideology matters more than arithmetic.
1,700 households in temporary accommodation. The solution? Build council housing fast.
The Green administration? Sold existing stock. Abandoned new builds. Called it “financial sustainability.”
Selling your winter coat to pay this month’s heating bill. You’ll freeze, but the balance looks better.
What Climate Virtue Costs.
July 2025: Bristol declared “best city in England on climate action.” Carbon emissions are down 56% since 2005.
Brilliant numbers.
Now the cost. Green Councillor Katy Grant complained in February 2023: “Only 2% of capital budget spent on decarbonising.”
While spending £21.1 million on temporary accommodation.
3,903 people are homeless. Their concern? Not spending enough on climate projects.
That’s not governance. That’s ideology masquerading as policy.
What Bristol Actually Needs.
Not more councillors who declare emergencies and design traffic schemes.
Someone with feet on the ground. Who understands councils exist to provide services, not chase ideological purity.
Someone who sees £25 million lost revenue and asks, “How do we get that back?”
Someone who sees £430,000 wasted and asks, “Why didn’t we fix the problem?”
Someone who understands you can’t sell 1,222 homes while promising 1,000 new ones.
Someone with basic business sense. Who seizes opportunities. Who prioritises housing people over virtue signalling.
Cardiff’s benefiting from Casualty. Bristol’s got climate scorecards and traffic schemes nobody wanted.
Pragmatic governance versus ideological fantasy.
The Question Nobody’s Asking.
If you can’t house people, what exactly are you good for?
3,903 people homeless. 1,815 children. Years in temporary accommodation. Hotel rooms. No kitchens. No space.
£20 million annually on emergency accommodation—could’ve built homes if they hadn’t sold 1,222 properties.
£10 million on Liveable Neighbourhoods, their leader regrets.
£430,000 on a failed sale.
£25 million annual revenue lost to Cardiff.
1,222 homes sold while promising 1,000 new ones.
All while homelessness increased 5%.
Not bad luck. Not underfunding. Ideological decision-making prioritising 2030 climate targets over housing people today.
Choosing traffic schemes over emergency accommodation.
Selling council housing while promising to build more.
Clueless fuckwits prioritising ideology over competence.
The Arithmetic Doesn’t Lie.
Every fact verified. Every number sourced. Every claim backed by official data or FOI responses.
This isn’t opinion. This is arithmetic.
Bristol’s Green experiment fails people needing homes now because it’s busy planning for 2030.
One in 121 residents homeless. Highest rate in the South West.
That’s the legacy.
Think about it next time you walk past someone sleeping rough on Park Street.
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About The Almighty Gob
Independent investigative blogger exposing the gap between Bristol City Council’s rhetoric and reality. Neurodivergent. Former UKIP member who recognises the same organisational dysfunction now emerging in the Green Party. No tribal allegiances. Just facts, receipts, and accountability.
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Sources & Citations.
Shelter Report: “Homelessness in England 2024” (December 2024) - Full PDF
Bristol Live: “Bristol records highest homeless rate in South West” (December 2024)
The Lead: “How Bristol put a lid on temporary accommodation costs amid homelessness crisis” (July 2025)
Bristol Green Party: “Green Councillors welcome consultation on South Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood” (September 2025)
The Bristol Cable: “Council tax and waste collection fees set to rise after marathon budget meeting” (February 2023)
BBC News: “Regrets over how Bristol liveable neighbourhood was rolled out” (May 2025)
Bristol24/7: “More than 1,000 sign petition opposing new liveable neighbourhood scheme” (October 2025)
Sky News/Kingdom FM: “Children living in ‘temporary’ accommodation for more than five years” (December 2024)
All Freedom of Information requests referenced are documented and available upon request from the sources above.
Brilliantly documented breakdown of resource allocation gone sideways. The selling 1,222 homes while promising 1,000 new ones is such a stark contradiction. When I was researching UK housing policy a few years back, this pattern kept showing up where councils would asset-strip to balance short-term budgets, leaving them worse off long term. The £21 milion temporary accommodation bill every year is basically municpal bleeding that compounds the original mistake.
And it ain't going to get any better 😉