£6m To Spend On Emergency Housing Agreed By Rother District Council

Sunday, 4 April 2021 06:00

By Huw Oxburgh, local democracy reporter

Rother council leaders have backed plans to spend up to £6m on emergency housing.

On Monday (March 29), Rother District Council’s cabinet gave their backing to increase funding for a programme to buy property to use as temporary accommodation for homeless residents.

While a final decision will be put to a full council vote, once completed the programme would be expected to save the council just under £160,000 per annum, as the council would be less reliant on private providers.

Terry Byrne, cabinet member for housing and homes, said:

“It is to make sure people are well supported in the local area [and] are enabled to access longer term housing effectively.

“The whole process is, having got them into temporary accommodation, we do everything we can via their finances and all levels of support to turn them into the sorts of tenants who can sustain an ordinary tenancy in the private rented sector or one of our registered providers.”

According to council papers, the council intends to purchase (and fit out) five one-bed flats, 11 two-bed flats and five three-bedroom houses, as well as two Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) each providing seven bedrooms.

Put together these properties would cost around £5.7m (to be funded through borrowing), but would be expected to save the council just under £160,000 per annum if all are occupied.

Currently, the average length of time a family with children will stay in temporary accommodation in Rother is 66 days, with an average cost of £2,500 to the council. A single person or childless couple will stay for 51 days on average, at an average cost of £1,700.

Based on these figures, each property purchased by the council would be expected to save between £12,000 to £14,000 each year.

Should current levels of homelessness demand decrease, the council could reuse or sell on the properties at a later date.

Kevin Dixon, cabinet member for finance, said:

“From a financial perspective this is very good news on a number of aspects.

“The financial return is good, not that we are looking to make a financial return necessarily. But the annual savings are good every year.

“One great thing is this can also be seen as an investment. Property prices generally only go up. Every five years these are on our books they will be revalued and the diffe