Oxford City Council has called for urgent government action on the spiralling cost of providing temporary accommodation to homeless households in the city.
The council has asked Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for a critical meeting to discuss this unfolding crisis and how it could be mitigated.
District and city councils have a legal duty to provide housing for individuals and families who find themselves homeless and are eligible for support.
As Oxford is the least affordable city in the UK for housing and about 30% of homes in the city are privately rented, residents are particularly exposed to economic shocks and increases in rent.
People are often moved into temporary accommodation before a more permanent home is found for them.
Oxford City Council owns 120 homes for temporary accommodation.
By focusing on the prevention of homelessness, the Council has brought down the number of people in temporary accommodation over recent years, averaging about 80 to 120 households in temporary accommodation at any one time.
But, over the past year, the number of people being made homeless has been increasing rapidly.
Oxford City Council currently has 220 households in temporary accommodation, and the figure is projected to reach 315 by July.
The scale and speed with which families are being made homeless has forced the Council to use expensive hotels as temporary accommodation.
The Council has carried out a range of measures over recent months to tackle the crisis, including:
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buying and leasing more temporary accommodation
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block-booking hotels
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ensuring a good supply of private and social housing for those in temporary accommodation to move on to
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hiring new staff to increase its ability to prevent homelessness
These efforts have saved Oxford taxpayers about £2m, but the Council is still projecting a hole in the budget of as much as £3m every year – equivalent to 12.5% of the Council’s annual net budget of around £24m without further interventions.
The government provided councils with a £600m support package in January. Oxford City Council received £240,000 from the pot – about 8% of the Council’s potential financial gap.
The government provides a subsidy for councils that need to pay for temporary accommodation. However, this was frozen at 90% of the Local Housing Allowance in 2011 and hasn’t been increased since. Rents in Oxford have increased by almost a third in that time.
Oxford City Council has retained its 7,900 council homes and has created a housing company, OX Place, to build hundreds more over the coming years.
Comment
“The temporary accommodation crisis is going to bankrupt councils across the country. That is not going to happen in Oxford, but it could have a profound and devastating impact on our services.
“The government must do more to help local authorities, but it also needs to do more to help families struggling to pay their rent. This summer, there could be more than 300 families and individuals living in temporary accommodation in Oxford alone. This is devastating for those families as well as a national financial crisis for local government.”
Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of Oxford City Council
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