“This Council notes:
A recent cross-party emergency summit hosted by Eastbourne Borough Council, alongside the District Councils Network and attended by 158 local authorities (half of all local authorities in England), discussed the national crisis relating to homelessness and temporary accommodation. Ordinary working families and single people are caught up in a housing crisis that is no fault of theirs. Local authorities across the country spent £1.7bn on temporary accommodation in the last financial year.
Homeless presentations to the borough council have risen by 93% from 2020/21 to 2022/23 and continue to rise. Our spend on temporary accommodation during this time has more than doubled. A combination of new responsibilities from the Homelessness Reduction Act, private sector rents being beyond the means of many people and the lack of affordable housing options for people to move into has created this crisis. The lack of secure housing has a wider socio-economic impact on health, mental wellbeing, childhood development, productivity and communities.
This Council supports the outcomes of the emergency cross party summit and urgently requests that the government:
1. Raises local housing allowance rates to a level that will cover at least 30% of local market rent and commit to annual uprating.
2. Provides urgent additional funding to local authorities for discretionary housing payments of £100m in 2023-24 and £200m in 2024-25.
3. Provides a £150m top-up to the homelessness prevention grant for 2024-25.
4. Reviews the cap for housing benefit subsidy rate for local authority homelessness placements.
5. Develops new policy to stimulate retention and supply in the privately rented sector.
6. Gives councils the long-term funding, flexibility and certainty needed to increase the supply of social housing.”
Supplementary agenda: The following amendment will be proposed by Councillor Bray and seconded by Councillor Bools as mover and seconder of the original motion:
Amend point 1 to read:
“1. Commit to an annual uplifting of the local housing allowance rates to ensure it continues to cover at least 30% of local market rent”.
Minutes:
Notice had been given of the following motion:
“This Council notes:
A recent cross-party emergency summit hosted by Eastbourne Borough Council, alongside the District Councils Network and attended by 158 local authorities (half of all local authorities in England), discussed the national crisis relating to homelessness and temporary accommodation. Ordinary working families and single people are caught up in a housing crisis that is no fault of theirs. Local authorities across the country spent £1.7bn on temporary accommodation in the last financial year.
Homeless presentations to the borough council have risen by 93% from 2020/21 to 2022/23 and continue to rise. Our spend on temporary accommodation during this time has more than doubled. A combination of new responsibilities from the Homelessness Reduction Act, private sector rents being beyond the means of many people and the lack of affordable housing options for people to move into has created this crisis. The lack of secure housing has a wider socio-economic impact on health, mental wellbeing, childhood development, productivity and communities.
This Council supports the outcomes of the emergency cross party summit and urgently requests that the government:
1. Raises local housing allowance rates to a level that will cover at least 30% of local market rent and commit to annual uprating.
2. Provides urgent additional funding to local authorities for discretionary housing payments of £100m in 2023-24 and £200m in 2024-25.
3. Provides a £150m top-up to the homelessness prevention grant for 2024-25.
4. Reviews the cap for housing benefit subsidy rate for local authority homelessness placements.
5. Develops new policy to stimulate retention and supply in the privately rented sector.
6. Gives councils the long-term funding, flexibility and certainty needed to increase the supply of social housing.”
In proposing the motion, Councillor Bray seconded by Councillor Bools proposed an amendment to point 1 to read:
“1. Commit to an annual uplifting of the local housing allowance rates to ensure it continues to cover at least 30% of local market rent”.
The amendment was accepted without debate and became the substantive motion.
Councillor R Allen, seconded by Councillor Cook, proposed the following amended motion:
“This Council notes:
Local Authorities spent £1.7bn on temporary accommodation in the last financial year. Homeless presentations to the Borough have almost doubled over the last 3 years.
The net cost to the Borough has more than doubled.
Private sector rents are at their highest on record, with available housing supply at its lowest.
Lack of secure housing has a wider socio-economic impact on health, productivity and communities.
A recent cross-party emergency summit hosted by Eastbourne Borough Council, alongside the District Councils Network and attended by 158 local authorities (half of all local authorities in England), discussed the national crisis relating to homelessness and temporary accommodation.
Ordinary working families and single people are caught up in a housing crisis that is no fault of their own.
This Council welcomes the announcement in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement that Local Housing Allowance rates will rise to a level that will cover at least 30% of local market rent, resulting in an additional £1.3bn in the 2024/25 Tax Year rising to £1.7bn in 2028/29.
This will give 1.6 million households an average of £800 of support next year.
This Council further welcomes the announcement in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement that Benefits including Universal Credit will increase by 6.7%
This Council urgently requests that the Government:
· Provides urgent additional funding to local authorities for Discretionary Housing Payments of £100m in 2023-24 and £200m in 2024-25.
· Provides a £150m top-up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant for 2024-25.
· Reviews the cap for housing benefit subsidy rate for local authority homelessness placements.
· Develops new policy to stimulate retention and supply in the privately rented sector.
· Gives councils the long-term funding, flexibility and certainty needed to increase the supply of social housing.
· Allows Councils the option to charge an additional levy on top of Council tax if local authorities are otherwise unable to meet the costs of providing temporary and emergency accommodation.
· Or alternatively, takes sufficient measures within the welfare and health systems to reduce the demand for Council homelessness prevention services.
And the Council commits to:
· Increasing focus on employment within the draft local plan and growth strategy.
· Taking measures to bring forward currently stalled developments including the Barwell and Earl Shilton Sustainable Urban Extensions
· The Council notes that the wider solution to the challenge of homelessness can only come through increasing employment levels and incomes relative to housing costs.
· The Council also notes with regret, that despite core spending power being at an 8- year high and having benefited from 1.8m in government grants since March 2022 to help tackle homelessness, the Council’s borrowing level has risen significantly with subsequent rising debt servicing costs and inviting speculation as to Councils ongoing ability to provide its services.”
Councillors Bray and Bools, as mover and seconder of the original motion as amended, did not accept the amendment as they felt it constituted a re-write of the original motion contrary to paragraph 19.6 of the council procedure rules. Council therefore debated the merits of the amendment and, upon being put to the vote, the amendment was LOST and debate resumed on the substantive motion.
Upon voting on the substantive motion, the motion was CARRIED and it was
RESOLVED – This Council supports the outcomes of the emergency cross party summit and urgently requests that the government:
(i) Commits to an annual uplifting of the local housing allowance rates to ensure it continues to cover at least 30% of local market rent;
(ii) Provides urgent additional funding to local authorities for discretionary housing payments of £100m in 2023-24 and £200m in 2024-25;
(iii) Provides a £150m top-up to the homelessness prevention grant for 2024-25;
(iv) Reviews the cap for housing benefit subsidy rate for local authority homelessness placements;
(v) Develops new policy to stimulate retention and supply in the privately rented sector;
(vi) Gives councils the long-term funding, flexibility and certainty needed to increase the supply of social housing.