Motion submitted by Councillor Diplock
“This Council notes:
• The unanimous, cross-party call on Government made at November’s Full Council meeting.
• At the Eastbourne Borough Council-led Housing Conference in Westminster in January, Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent local authorities repeated our collective call to raise the cap on housing benefit subsidy for local authority housing placements from the current 2011 levels, in order to properly reflect the real costs of providing Temporary Accommodation (TA).
• That this meeting was joined and supported by Crisis, the Trussell Trust, MPs and Peers.
• The most recently available figures show that rough sleeping in England has increased by 26%, and a record 280,000 households are in TA.
• Over the 2023/24 financial year, this has resulted in:
§ Ordinary working families being priced out of the housing market through no fault of their own;
§ Almost everyone knowing someone who is struggling to access housing of their choice; and
§ The Council’s total net spend on TA in 2023/24 forecast to be circa £4.6m, up from £1.3m just three years ago, with scores of local authorities across the country similarly affected.
This situation is unsustainable and continues to represent an existential threat to local government.
Whilst the Council's teams will continue to do everything in its powers to meet both the needs of its residents and its statutory obligations, the system was not created to deal with these numbers. The driving forces underpinning this are systemic and structural and are not in the Council's control. Under current funding arrangements the Council does not have the resources to solve the problem alone.
As such, this Council resolves to:
1. Declare a Housing Emergency for the Borough of Eastbourne.
2. Recognise and endorse the work of the Leader of the Council in pursuing a cross party, cross community consensus on this national challenge.
3. Reaffirm the full support of this Council in the actions of this authority, and that the Leader of the Council and Chief Executive continue to press the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Chancellor of the Exchequer - along with their shadow counterparts - for additional resources to help those local housing authorities and councils worst affected, such as Eastbourne, including raising the current 2011 cap on housing benefit subsidy for local authority housing placements.
4. Continue to work with the sector and try and engage Government to develop long term solutions to fix the national housing crisis.”
Minutes:
Councillor Diplock moved and Councillor Holt seconded the motion as tabled.
Councillor Small moved and Councillor Ansell seconded an alternative course of action as follows:
“This Council Notes:?
· That the underlying issues behind Eastbourne’s increased demand for temporary and emergency accommodation are complex and many, but primarily driven by a shrinking and increasingly unaffordable private rental sector, a severe shortage of housing available to the Council for placements and employment levels in the town falling relative to the national average, all further being exacerbated by the increased cost of living following the pandemic and energy crisis triggered by the invasion of Ukraine.
· This is despite a national backdrop of record levels of house building, with the national target of a million homes built during this current parliament on course to be met and close to record levels of employment across the UK.
· Locally, Eastbourne has seen an average of 180 net dwellings constructed every year, with just half of these being new builds, despite a significant number of brownfield sites sitting vacant for years on end.?
· There is also a major shortage of housing for those on the housing waiting list, with cases of residents in band C waiting as long as 13 years for a property.??
For Eastbourne, the end result has been:?
· Ordinary working families being priced out of the housing market through no fault of their own;?
· Almost everyone knowing someone who is struggling to access housing of their choice; and?
· The Council’s total net spend on TA in 2023/24 forecast to be circa £4.6m, up from 3.8m?in 2022/23 and £1.6m in 2021/22.
As such, this Council calls on the Leader and Cabinet to:?
· Make use of all available powers to maximise Eastbourne’s attractiveness?for new housing proposals and commits to working meaningfully with all partners at both local and national level to solve the challenges that are blocking development in the town, notably but not limited to the sites at Bedfordwell Road, Junction Road, TJ Hughes and Debenhams buildings.?
· Commits to publishing its own locally determined housing need figure, to help guide the towns housing ambitions.?
· Commends the government for the action already taken to address the temporary accommodation challenges that this Council faces, namely in uprating the Local Housing Allowance Rate at a cost of £9Bn over the next 5 years, and uprating the core spending power grant to Eastbourne by an additional £145,000.?
· Requests that the local MP continues to lobby the Treasury and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for the Housing Benefit Subsidy Rate to be increased and that the Council engages with the housing sector, MP and Government on what long term?solutions are needed to fix the national housing crisis.?
· Formally consider redefining the tourist zone, with a view to having a smaller number of higher quality beds and allowing some existing tourist accommodation to be converted to residential.?”
The Council debated the motion and the amendment together.
The alternative course of action was put to a vote and declared lost by 7 votes to 17 votes.
The original motion was put to a vote and was agreed unanimously.
RESOLVED that –
This Council notes:
• The unanimous, cross-party call on Government made at November’s Full Council meeting.
• At the Eastbourne Borough Council-led Housing Conference in Westminster in January, Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent local authorities repeated our collective call to raise the cap on housing benefit subsidy for local authority housing placements from the current 2011 levels, in order to properly reflect the real costs of providing Temporary Accommodation (TA).
• That this meeting was joined and supported by Crisis, the Trussell Trust, MPs and Peers.
• The most recently available figures show that rough sleeping in England has increased by 26%, and a record 280,000 households are in TA.
• Over the 2023/24 financial year, this has resulted in:
§ Ordinary working families being priced out of the housing market through no fault of their own;
§ Almost everyone knowing someone who is struggling to access housing of their choice; and
§ The Council’s total net spend on TA in 2023/24 forecast to be circa £4.6m, up from £1.3m just three years ago, with scores of local authorities across the country similarly affected.
This situation is unsustainable and continues to represent an existential threat to local government.
Whilst the Council's teams will continue to do everything in its powers to meet both the needs of its residents and its statutory obligations, the system was not created to deal with these numbers. The driving forces underpinning this are systemic and structural and are not in the Council's control. Under current funding arrangements the Council does not have the resources to solve the problem alone.
As such, this Council resolves to:
1. Declare a Housing Emergency for the Borough of Eastbourne.
2. Recognise and endorse the work of the Leader of the Council in pursuing a cross party, cross community consensus on this national challenge.
3. Reaffirm the full support of this Council in the actions of this authority, and that the Leader of the Council and Chief Executive continue to press the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Chancellor of the Exchequer - along with their shadow counterparts - for additional resources to help those local housing authorities and councils worst affected, such as Eastbourne, including raising the current 2011 cap on housing benefit subsidy for local authority housing placements.
4. Continue to work with the sector and try and engage Government to develop long term solutions to fix the national housing crisis.