On May 5, voters in London will head to the polls to elect their new local government representatives.

These elections will decide who runs London’s local authorities, which are responsible for services such as education, social care and housing – issues that greatly affect the lives of children in the capital. This is an opportunity for local government to step up, especially on the temporary housing crisis, where national government has so far failed.

London has the highest child poverty rates in the country, with 37% of children living in relative poverty after accounting for housing costs. Today, with the cost of living crisis starting to take hold and the national government failing to offer meaningful support to low-income families, these problems will worsen.

There are currently over 80,000 children living in temporary accommodation in London. Human Rights Watch has found that these families often live in substandard or uninhabitable conditions, violating children’s basic rights. Countless children are growing up with no space to play, unable to fully participate in school and trying to sleep as cold air seeps into their bedrooms and toxic mold grows on their walls.

One of the reasons for the high number of families in temporary accommodation is that over the past decade local authorities have seen their central government funding cut, with London facing the biggest cuts in its purchasing power. Faced with these cuts, local authorities had to do more with less.

Local authorities can take concrete steps to improve the situation. The London Child Poverty Alliance, a group of organizations committed to tackling child poverty, has released a manifesto ahead of the upcoming local elections. He calls on those running for office to prioritize the fight against child poverty, child hunger and child homelessness.

The manifesto also urges local government to provide more social housing in London and to develop a framework of co-ordinated standards to improve conditions in temporary accommodation – a common sense step which would require all accommodation to meet the basic needs of children . Human Rights Watch calls for similar standards at the national level.

In May, local authorities should take these calls seriously; if it does not, thousands of children will continue to be denied their basic human rights.