Council Temporary Accommodation costs at highest levels ever

The reality of the figures published by Folkestone & Hythe District Council in their payment to suppliers data shows incontrovertibly the cost of housing people in temporary accomodation (TA) is becoming ever more expensive.

While we cannot sufficiently estimate the human cost of on the households in TA, we can make a good estimate of the financial cost in our district through the data published by Folkestone & Hythe District Council.

The Council’s data for Temporary Accommodation (TA) = Self Contained Nightly Lets and Bed & Breakfast Accomodation has costs £3,080,400 between 1 April 2018 and 31 Dec 2024. One must not forget the data for 2024/25 only reflects the spend between 1 April 2024 and 31 Dec 2024 as this is the latest data published. The 2024/25 costs may well exceed the record breaking year 2023/24, for TA costs as there is three months worth of data yet to be published.

TA Spend & Suppliers Attachment – 2021-22

TA Spend & Suppliers Attachment – 2022-23

TA Spend & Suppliers Attachment – 2023-24

In the first nine months of this financial year, 2024/25, the Council have spent £593,600, according to their published data. It is the council who must pick up the tab when they have a duty and responsibility to house a household if they become homeless. The council are not the root cause of the problem.

The root causes of this financial strain are twofold. Firstly, rising rents coupled with the freezing of the local housing allowance (LHA).

The Local Housing Allowance – the maximum housing benefit that can be claimed – remained static for several years, while private sector rents continued to rise, and it was poor affordability of even the cheapest rental properties for those reliant on housing benefit that contributed directly to more households becoming homeless and requiring assistance through the provision of temporary accommodation.

It is not necessary for any report to inform us we need more affordable homes each year across the district and the county  to meet the needs of households unable to afford to buy or rent in the market. However, there is no agreed definition of affordable housing. The most commonly referred to definition of affordable housing is set out in Annex 2 to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This is the definition used by local planning authorities when making provision within their areas to meet local demand and need for affordable housing. The NPPF definition incorporates social rent, as well as a range of intermediate rent and for-sale products. Many of these products are clearly unaffordable to those on mid to lower incomes.

It’s clear then the affordable housing mix offered on the Harbour Arm plots; which was refused last night, was not affordable to a large proportion of households in Folkestone, or the District as a whole. 

This issue will not disappear, and given it is now almost a certainty our district will become part of a unitary authority, it will be left to another council to resolve to build more affordable homes.

Even with the Council purchasing 44 new homes via the Taylor Wimpey site at Risborough Barracks, this will not immediately alleviate the issue for those in TA. Nor has the building of 37 new homes through Oportunitas at the old Royal Victoria Hospital site, resolved the issue. This is not a problem our council can buy their way out of.

Again we cannot sufficiently estimate the human cost on the households in TA. However, the financial costs for our Council will only increase given the current trend in their spend data, and that is not good for the public purse, or for those living in TA.

If you are in Temporary Accommodation you have rights and Shelter set these out ⇒ here

If you are at risk of homelessness or concerned about losing your home in the future for any reason then you can contact the Council ⇒ here

The Shepway Vox Team

The Velvet Voices of Voxatiousness