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The BBC can reveal that councils in England are facing rising homelessness costs, urging the government to foot more of the bill.
Local authorities who place people in temporary accommodation usually pay upfront costs and claim cashback from central government.
But the cross-party Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils across England, says the 2011 ruling could freeze the amount they can claim to have been paid for almost the past five years. 740 million pounds have been spent.
The LGA says the money would otherwise have been spent on areas such as adult social care, children’s services and preventing homelessness.
It wants the Labor government to update the system to reflect 2024 spending.
gave LGA says the growing number of people who need to be placed in temporary accommodation, together with rising costs per person, has resulted in a funding gap of £737.3m over the past five years.
“You’ve seen a dramatic rise in rents since 2011,” LGA housing spokesman Adam Hugh told the BBC.
“So it’s becoming increasingly expensive in a constrained market to find places that are suitable for people to live at prices that councils can afford.”
The lack of available accommodation options means that many councils have had to resort to more expensive options, such as hotels and bed and breakfasts, to accommodate those in need.
official This is reflected in government data released last week. A record 123,100 households were in temporary housing at the end of June, up 16 percent from last year.
Matt Downie, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, told the BBC: “As more and more people become homeless due to rising housing costs and skyrocketing rents, they have nowhere to go but their local council. is not, which is often nowhere to house them but in expensive temporary accommodation that is often not suitable for their needs.
If someone meets the conditions for temporary accommodation, it is often up to their local council to find them somewhere to live.
The council is then usually reimbursed by the Department for Work and Pensions using the individual’s benefits.
Historically, the amount a council could claim was capped at 90%. Local Housing Allowancewhich is used to find out how many benefits people are entitled to.
But the coalition government froze the limit based on 2011 rates and no government has since unfrozen it.
“[Then-Chancellor] “George Osborne and his gang decided to try to pass the buck to local authorities, and foot the bill for benefits at the expense of many other things,” said Hague, who is also Labor leader of Westminster City Council. .
The LGA says the funding gap, the difference between the amount paid by councils in housing benefit to households living in temporary accommodation and the amount paid to them by central government, in 2018/19. Doubled from £104.5m to £204.5m. In 2022/23.
London and other major cities are generally the worst hit, with Manchester, Newham and Westminster councils registering the biggest funding gaps.
“We absolutely recognize the pressures on government finances,” said Hugh, but he urged ministers to ensure there is “a fair sharing of the burden between local authorities and national government” when it comes to Regarding the funding of temporary accommodation.
Labour’s general election manifesto promised “a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country, to put Britain back on track to end homelessness”.
While the Chancellor pledged an extra £230m to tackle homelessness in the Budget, no such strategy has yet been launched.
The LGA has called on the government to “immediately” introduce the plan, which it says should address the “shortage of truly affordable homes”.
Labor has pledged to build 1.5 million more homes over the next five years to tackle the housing crisis, but one A BBC investigation was revealed earlier this week. The majority of councils have expressed doubts as to the extent to which this objective can be achieved.
The total cost to councils of funding temporary accommodation in 2022/23 was £1.75bn.
This is on top of the millions of pounds spent by central government on housing other people such as asylum seekers.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “We inherited a housing system that is broken, which is why we are committed to the biggest increase in affordable housing in a generation, and to ensure For our social security system to be fair and sustainable.”
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