BCP Council £1.5m over budget due to temporary accommodation
119 councils are calling on government to address the homelessness crisis
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council are one of 119 local authorities urging the government to avert the homelessness crisis.
According to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the cost of temporary accommodation to councils reached £1.7billion last year and it is increasing rapidly.
Locally, we’ve been hearing that BCP Council went £1.5million overbudget on temporary accommodation last year.
Councillor Kieran Wilson, Portfolio Holder for Housing, told us:
“We definitely need to see an increase in our funding, but we also need to see longer-term funding so we can make more effective decisions.”
Currently, the majority of funding is grant-based, meaning councils have to bid for funding, but what Cllr Wilson would like to see is “an allocation of money” handed out to local authorities.
The rising cost of temporary accommodation is hitting district councils particularly hard due to a large proportion of their budgets being devoted to housing.
BCP Council, along with 119 other local authorities, are calling on the Chancellor raise local housing allowance rates to a level that will cover at least 30% of local market rent.
Cllr Wilson said: “A lot of homes are unaffordable for most people on local housing allowance because that hasn't been raised since 2019 and hopefully by lobbying, we can see this change.”
Homelessness has been deemed a “national crisis” that threatens local government’s financial sustainability and the services upon which England’s most vulnerable people rely.
A letter, signed by councils from across the country and backed by Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Independents, has been sent to the Chancellor.
Councils are demanding an additional £200million for discretionary housing payments in 2024-25 as well a review of the cap for housing benefit subsidy rate for local authority homelessness placements.
Cllr Wilson added: “No one should be living in temporary accommodation, especially families. It has a really detrimental impact on children.
This is a cross party issue. This is an issue that we need to solve. I think by joining other councils, we've been able to get that message across.”