The following motion was submitted by Councillor Diplock:
“This Council notes:
Local Authorities spent £1.7bn on temporary accommodation in the last financial year.
Homeless presentations to the Borough have more than doubled over the last 3 years.
The net cost to the Borough has increased from £1.4m in 2021/22, to a projected figure of well over £3m this year.
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.
The recent cross-party summit hosted by this Authority alongside the District Councils’ Network and attended by 158 local authorities (half of all local authorities in England) to tackle the national crisis relating to homelessness and temporary accommodation.
Ordinary working families are caught up in a housing crisis that is no fault of theirs.
This Council urgently requests that the Government:
· Raises Local Housing Allowance rates to a level that will cover at least 30% of local market rent and commit to annual uprating.
· 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.”
Minutes:
Councillor Diplock moved and Councillor Holt seconded the motion as set out in the agenda, in relation to the housing and homeless challenge, following on from a homelessness summit recently hosted by the Council.
Councillor Small moved and Councillor Ansell seconded an amendment to the motion, which sought to add additional actions for the Government and Council:
To amend the third sentence to state: “The net cost to the Borough has increased from £1.5m in 2021/22 and £2.2m in 2022/23, to a projected figure of well over £3m this year.”
To add the following to the end of the existing motion:
“This Council urgently requests that the Government:
· 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 the currently stalled developments at Bedfordwell Road and The Old Dairy as a matter of urgency and regrets that stronger action wasn’t taken to deliver housing upon Site 7A.
· 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. It is regretful that Eastbourne saw no increase in employment between 2010 and 2019, despite this being a time of record employment growth nationally and has averaged a net increase of 162 homes a year between 16/17 and 21/22 with less than 5% of these being affordable, despite this being a time of record house building nationally.
· The Council also notes with regret, that despite core spending power being at an 8-year high and having benefited from 1.6m and 4.9m in government grants since March 2022 to help tackle homelessness for Eastbourne Borough Council and East Sussex County Council respectively, the Council’s borrowing level has risen to £181m with subsequent debt servicing costs rising several million and inviting speculation as to Councils ongoing ability to provide its services.”
The motion and amendment were debated together and in full.
The amendment proposed by Councillor Small was put to a vote and lost by 8 votes for, to 19 against.
The original motion proposed by Councillor Diplock was put to a vote and carried unanimously.
RESOLVED (unanimously) –
This Council notes:
· Local Authorities spent £1.7bn on temporary accommodation in the last financial year.
· Homeless presentations to the Borough have more than doubled over the last 3 years.
· The net cost to the Borough has increased from £1.4m in 2021/22, to a projected figure of well over £3m this year.
· 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.
· The recent cross-party summit hosted by this Authority alongside the District Councils’ Network and attended by 158 local authorities (half of all local authorities in England) to tackle the national crisis relating to homelessness and temporary accommodation.
· Ordinary working families are caught up in a housing crisis that is no fault of theirs.
This Council urgently requests that the Government:
· Raises Local Housing Allowance rates to a level that will cover at least 30% of local market rent and commit to annual uprating.
· 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.”