Falling housing completions lead to the use of companies like Paramount Independent Property Services LLP

For the financial year 2018/19, (1st April 2018 – 31st March 2019), according to the payment for suppliers for all Councils in Kent, including Medway & Kent County Council, Paramount Independent Property Services Llp (Paramount) have received £5.6 million in payments from the public purse. They have received this money for providing nightly lets to Kent Councils to house the homeless.

For those of you who are not aware Paramount provide nightly lets to Councils to house people who are homeless, at rates which start a £30 a night rising to £65 a night. Clients as they are called can stay up to 31 nights from which Paramount will collect up to £1,705 in rent. One can see that Clients stay for a varying number of nights from these invoices provided by Folkestone & Hythe District Council.

As you can see Thanet District Council are by far the most reliant on Paramount’s services and have spent in excess of £2 million with them. Payments to Paramount by Thanet District Council make up 37% of the whole spend (£5.6 million) across all Councils in Kent. This definitively proves there is a significant homelessness problem in Thanet.

Mr De-Negri (pictured) is the owner of the Paramount group of companies. He worked as a Private Sector Housing Technical Officer at Medway Council (1998 – 2002). As an Empty Homes Consultant at Swale Borough Council (2002 – 2003). As a Private Sector Housing Officer for Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council (2007 – 2010). As a Senior Private Sector Housing Officer at Dartford Borough Council (2010 – 2014) After this he left and formed Paramount Independent Property Services in January 2014. Is it a case of revolving doors?

Also on the list of payments is Kent County Council who have paid Paramount £112,411. These payments are what are known as s17 payments.

Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 (s17) defines the duties of a local authority in safeguarding and promoting the general welfare of a child in need and her/his family within their area.

Assistance given to families under s17 includes financial assistance. Any s17 payment must be a grant, not a loan.

Paramount we stress are NOT doing anything wrong. They are simply the symptom not the cause of not enough homes being built and completed across Kent, whether they be Social Housing, Shared Equity or Private. Is this the price of NIMBYISM, or our Councils failing to build sufficient social housing? Is it due to the rising price of land and land banking? Many factors feed into this substantial issue.

In the mid 60’s Britain built over 400,000 homes annually. In the 1970s councils built 40% of all houses. After 1980, this annual rate halved to seldom more than 200,000 homes. Under Margaret Thatcher Councils were stripped of their ability to borrow and to raise local taxes, rendering them incapable of acting as major developers. In 2013, the UK saw the lowest level of house building  for any peacetime year since the 1920’s. According to official statistics, new housing completions in 2017/18 reached 163,250. Over 50 years the number of housing completions has fallen by 62%.

Permanent dwellings completed in the UK per year from 1950-present compared with the Government of the day

Source: Office for National Statistics Table 241 House building

In Oct 2018 the borrowing cap on the Housing Revenue Account was raised once again allowing Councils to begin building homes. However, local authorities say the decision to lift the cap on the Housing Revenue Account isn’t enough for them to deliver on the scale needed to end the housing crisis. Hence the reason Councils in Kent need to use the services of companies like Paramount.

Should our Councils across Kent and the UK become major developers once again as they were previously? Or do we continue to pay companies like Paramount vast sums of money to house the homeless? There is we believe, no easy answer.

The Shepwayvox Team

Journalism for the People NOT the Powerful