Crawley Borough Council has declared a housing emergency. Council leader Michael Jones will write to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, asking him to help councils and housing authorities such as Crawley and to ‘unfreeze’ the Local Housing Allowance. Mr Jones said: “In recent years, Crawley has experienced a perfect storm in relation to temporary accommodation. We’ve seen huge increases in homelessness demand on the back of the national housing crisis, the lack of housing supply and the cost of both ownership and rental.”