Mid Devon council triples its temporary accommodation

It buys two houses to help homelesss

Mid Devon District Council is buying two properties to use as temporary accommodation for households in need.

The purchase of two houses of multiple occupation in Tiverton, currently in the  private rental sector, will cost around £700,000 – an investment which the council says will save money in the long-term.

In the last financial year, it forked out £170,000 on temporary accommodation such as B&B and hotel rooms, while a further £127,000 was spent using its own housing stock as temporary accommodation.

The two new properties will be able to house up to 14 people at a time. One is in good condition but the other needs some repairs, which has been factored into the total cost along with other fees.

At a meeting of Mid Devon’s ruling cabinet on Tuesday [9 August], councillors were told they would save £4,000 a week compared to the cost of B&Bs, totalling around £200,000 a year.

It will more than triple the number of temporary accommodation units the council directly can access, up from six to 22.

Cabinet member for housing Councillor Stuart Penny (Conservative, Yeo) said: “It would only take three years and we’ve pretty much got the buildings paid for and that’s an asset that we will retain.”

The money will come from existing budgets, mainly earmarked reserves set aside for private sector housing and homelessness.

A council report presented to the meeting said it is “experiencing a rise in the number of presentations to our service from people either rough sleeping, at risk of rough sleeping or homeless for a variety of reasons.”

For the first quarter of the current financial year, 17 applicants were in B&Bs and a further 37 households in other forms of temporary accommodation, with Mid Devon spending £43,000 on B&Bs so far this year.

Officer Simon Newcombe said the purchase of the properties aligns with the council’s housing strategy as it gives it “flexibility” to “quickly move homeless families and homeless individuals into accommodation that’s within our control” and to “assign people to the appropriate property in appropriate location.”

He called it a “rare opportunity,” explaining: “I can certainly never remember a time where a private owner of two licensed [houses of multiple occupation] with all the appropriate planning permission and licenses in place came to us with first option to purchase those properties before they would go on the open market.”

Mr Newcombe said the fact the properties are located centrally within the district in “very sustainable locations” and that the council is “very familiar” with them through its current licensing regime “makes the opportunity ever more attractive to the council.”

Councillor Colin Slade (Conservative, Lowman) said: “I fully support the idea of actually buying both. I think it does make a lot of sense.”

He asked, should circumstances change and the authority no longer needed them for homeless accommodation, whether it could rent out the properties or sell them “and actually get a return on our investment.”

Mr Newcombe said the council wasn’t intending to “dispose of them quickly” but agreed that once they had been used for their intended purpose, they were potential options should they no longer be required at a later date.

Councillor Chris Daw (Conservative, Cranmore) said she was “really pleased to see that we’re looking at something like this” but wanted to know how the council was going to monitor the properties to ensure they are kept in good order.

“If we’re going to purchase this and put the homeless in, we have got to monitor them very strongly; (a) for the neighbours, because you’ll get lots of complaints in time, and also for the health and wellbeing of those who go in there.”

She was told there will be tenant support service costs associated with the project, involving the homeless team carrying out their case work with individuals. The council is also looking to employ specialist support, which is likely to include an on-site presence for tenants.

One of the properties is currently used by temporary workers typically staying for “several weeks or months to fulfil a contract locally and then move on,” but there are “one of two” longer-term professional tenants in the other.

Mr Newcombe said there will be a “due legal process for [the current owner] to go through to give them notice,” adding: “It may be a relatively small number of people that are actually required to formally give notice to, given the way that the properties are being used at the moment.

“We will work with them to look at their options. If any of them are likely to stray into a homeless situation, it might be that actually we retain them in the property in the short-term.”

He said the homes could also potentially be used in partnership with neighbouring councils, respite accommodation providers and other care providers.

“So, there’s lots and lots of different things we could do with those properties and the beauty there is the flexibility,” Mr Newcombe added.

After the item was briefly discussed in private, excluding the press and public because of what the council deems to be confidential information, it was announced that cabinet had approved the purchase of both properties.