North Devon Council buying four properties to ease pressures

Council will provide half of the funds for the properties

North Devon Council’s buying four properties to help ease its housing pressures.

Half of the money to pay for them will come from the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund and the rest from the council.

Two of the new homes will be used to provide temporary accommodation and two will be used for the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme which prioritises people from Afghanistanwho helped the UK.

North Devon Council bought nine properties using £1 million it received in the first round of the scheme and which it match-funded.

It didn’t take part in round two because it claimed the rules made it difficult to use the properties for temporary accommodation.

The four new properties have been bought using a grant provided from the third round of the scheme. Funding is based on the £305,000 average cost of property in North Devon, with the homes expected to increase in value and provide “a much needed asset” for the future.

The increasing cost of housing people in temporary accommodation like B&Bs was described by North Devon Council as “a worrying trend”. Last year it earmarked £2 million for temporary accommodation, which costs between £75 and £80 a night.

The council says providing homes rather than B&Bs saves £10,000 per unit annually.

Cllr Paul Crabb (Con, Ilfracombe East) said that, contrary to what some people might, think this is not free housing, as the council still had to pay and it had to do what the government wants.

“It’s free, as long as we do what we are told,” he said, reminding councillors that they didn’t take part in round two because it would not have helped the local housing crisis.

Earlier this summer, more than 2,000 people were waiting for homes in North Devon, with 70 families living in temporary accommodation.

Cllr Graham Bell (Lib Dem, Braunton East) said they had a duty to protect and look after people from Afghanistan who had served this country, some of whom had experienced death threats back home.

He said 18 Afghan families of service personnel currently live in North Devon.