Meeting documents

Michael Veryard, Housing Manager was in attendance and Members were reminded that at the last meeting of the Committee an update was requested on homelessness in South Bucks district.

The Committee was informed that during 2018/19, South Bucks District Council received a total of 107 homelessness applications which compared to a total of 102 homelessness applications in the preceding year, 2017/18.

Overall, the number of households in temporary accommodation saw an annual drop of 12% at the end of the year 2018/19 (55 down to 48). However, within this total, the number of households in nightly booked temporary accommodation had dropped more significantly with a 44% reduction overall (36 down to 20). This had significant implications for the Council’s budget as nightly booked accommodation generated significant cost for the Council.

Members were informed that by national comparison, South Bucks had performed well, with a Local Government Association survey recording that 83% of authorities had seen an increase in homelessness applications and 61% had seen an increase in the use of temporary accommodation.

Under the provisions introduced by the Homelessness Reduction Act, the Council has a duty to secure temporary accommodation when it accepted a Homelessness Relief Duty and it had reason to believe that the applicant was in priority need (e.g. household with or expecting children, applicant with significant medical issues etc.).

Members were informed that the Relief Duty lasted for a minimum of 56 days. Therefore, the Council would normally have to provide temporary accommodation for at least 56 days before it could make a final decision on whether or not it had a duty to secure longer term accommodation for the household. If the Council accepted this longer term duty then it had to continue to provide temporary accommodation until the applicant can secure a permanent move elsewhere.

In relation to Bed and Breakfast/Nightly Booked Accommodation, the Council placed applicants directly into this accommodation and payed a nightly rate directly to the landlord. The Council then re-charged the applicants £25.00 per night towards the cost of the accommodation (the Housing Act 1996 allowed the Council to make a reasonable charge to applicants in relation to the costs that it was paying).

The nightly rate payable by the Council varied depending on the type of accommodation and size of household and the Committee was provided with details of applicants who were in nightly booked accommodation in March 2019 to show the variation in cost.

Members were informed that comparisons with the rates paid by other authorities was difficult to make as this information was not generally shared, however, informal discussions with other authorities over the last 12 months had indicated that the rates paid by South Bucks District Council were comparable with other authorities and were in fact lower in some cases.

Reference was made to some of the schemes the Council had developed to reduce the cost of temporary accommodation; Gerards Cross Former Police House, the Private Sector Leasing Scheme which operated in partnership with Paradigm, Bucks Housing Association Acquistions and Bath Road which was still in the process of being developed. Bath Road would provide a significant additional supply of temporary accommodation to further reduce reliance on B & B provision.

For 2019/20, as of 19 June, 2019, there were a total of 52 households in temporary accommodation.

The Committee was made aware of the recent upturn in homelessness applications following the implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, with the Duty to Refer resulting in more homeless clients being referred to local authorities and other statutory agencies.

Discussion took place on performance indicators for homelessness and Members asked that targets be kept under review to ensure targets were challenging.

Members were informed that the cost of the Private Sector Leasing Scheme to the Council was on average around £400-500 a month and this was paid in the form of a management fee to Paradigm. This equated to £11,500 per unit, of which there were 25 Units (May 2019).

In relation to the Bath Road site, Members were informed that these units would be for a mix of clients with families included. Safeguarding considerations would be undertaken, with consideration given to any clients vulnerabilities and needs when allocating accommodation. Checks were also carried out on B & B owners to ensure clients were safeguarded.

RESOLVED – That the report provided be noted.