By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Council leaders across Nottinghamshire have signed a letter to the Government calling for more support as they fear the costs of providing temporary accommodation for the homeless now pose a “critical risk” to the financial stability of local authorities across the country.
Nottingham City Council’s Cllr David Mellen (Lab), Bassetlaw District Council’s Cllr James Naish (Lab), Broxtowe Borough Council’s Cllr Milan Radulovic (Lab), Gedling Borough Council’s Cllr John Clarke (Lab) and Mansfield mayor Andy Abrahams (Lab) have all signed the letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Signed nationally by 119 Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and independent council leaders in total, it calls on him to address the homelessness and temporary accommodation crisis.
It follows an emergency summit held on October 31, co-hosted by Eastbourne Borough Council and the District Councils’ Network.
The event was attended by 158 councils.
The letter says: “The ensuing increase in costs is a critical risk to the financial sustainability of many local authorities and we urge you to act swiftly to ensure we can continue our vital work.
“Without urgent intervention, the existence of our safety net is under threat.
“The danger is that we have no option but to start withdrawing services which currently help so many families to avoid hitting crisis point.
“There will also be a knock-on impact on other cherished council services, which councils could also have to scale back, and on other parts of the public sector, such as the NHS, which will be left to pick up the pieces.”
The letter asks that the Government boosts various forms of financial support for local councils.
These include raising Local Housing Allowance rates to a level that will cover at least 30 per cent of local market rent, an extra £100m for Discretionary Housing Payments in 2023/24 and an additional £200m in 2024/25, and a £150m top-up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant for 2024/25.
Furthermore the letter asks for a review of the cap for housing benefit subsidy rate for local authority homelessness placements, the development of policy to stimulate retention and supply in the privately rented sector and that councils are given long-term funding to increase the supply of social housing.
In Nottingham, the authority is predicting a “significant” budget overspend due to homelessness and the housing crisis.
In a recent report the council said it increased temporary accommodation for families from 88 units in 2017 to 441 units in 2023.
On top of this it provides 430 units of supported accommodation for single people, including rough sleepers.
However all of this is now full.
The authority is therefore being forced to house 169 households in hotel and B&B accommodation.
The cost of this is around £22,000 every day.
Cllr Jay Hayes, the council’s Portfolio Holder for Housing, said: “We’re doing all we can to put provide support to prevent people becoming homeless in the first place but it’s vital that the Government provides additional financial support to councils urgently to tackle this immediate crisis.
“In the longer term there needs to be a fundamental change in national housing policy and funding which increases the availability of affordable homes for people.”
In response to the letter, a Government spokesperson said: “Local authorities have seen an increase in core spending power of up to £5.1bn or 9.4 per cent in cash terms on 2022/23, with almost £60bn available for local government in England.
“We are committed to reducing the need for temporary accommodation by preventing homelessness before it occurs in the first place, which is why we are providing councils with £1bn through the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years.
“We are also delivering a fairer private rented sector for tenants and landlords through the Renters’ Reform Bill, which includes abolishing Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions.”
