Liverpool city council face massive rise in homelessness costs

Liverpool city council face massive rise in homelessness costs

0:05 AM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago 12

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Liverpool City Council is turning to the private rented sector to address the homelessness crisis.

The city is facing huge rises in temporary accommodation costs from £250,000 in 2019, to a projected £25m by the end of this financial year – a rise of 10,000%.

That’s the budget equivalent of everything the council spends on Culture, Tourism, Parks and Youth Services, or what would be raised in income if Council Tax was increased by 12.5%.

Spike in homelessness numbers

The council reveals almost 1,000 families are in temporary accommodation – just over half 558 are in B&Bs or hostels.

The council aims to tackle the temporary accommodation crisis by buying up to 400 properties from the PRS for a period of up to five years.

If approved, the proposed contract would start on 1 June 2024, with an estimated cost of £19m until 2029 – a net saving of £121m if current trends continue.

The council claims the city has seen a spike in homelessness numbers due to a rise in Section 21 eviction notices, fuelled by rent rises caused by an increase in mortgage interest rates.

The city council say their plan will help families move out of B&Bs and hotels into more suitable and sustainable accommodation.

Homelessness situation in Liverpool is at crisis point

Councillor Sarah Doyle, cabinet member for Housing, said: “The homelessness situation in Liverpool is at crisis point. Due to unprecedented external factors, the cost of housing people in temporary accommodation has become unsustainable.

“A 10,000% rise in five years is a frightening number and is creating phenomenal pressure on our overall Council budget.”

Ms Doyle points out that a meeting in Westminster saw councils warn the government the cost of housing homeless people is pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy.

Eastbourne’s council leader claims they are spending 49p in every £1 of taxpayers’ money on temporary accommodation.

Revoke Section 21

Ms Doyle adds: “This is a nationwide problem, as we saw at Westminster last week, and we need the government to take action on a number of levels, not least on revoking Section 21 notices and increasing local housing allowance rates and regulating rents.

“This temporary accommodation plan coming to Cabinet is a good step forward in mitigating the rise in the costs we are having to endure.

“It will crucially also provide people and families with a more homely and sustainable setting. I fear what impact the current situation is having on the mental health of those affected, not least the children.”

“Hopefully by June, we will be in a position to begin this contract and start to provide accommodation in our communities which will enable people to live a more normal life whilst their long-term situations are being resolved.”


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Comments

Reluctant Landlord

9:17 AM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

hahahah - you reap what you sow.

One moment you are slating the PRS, now you want LL's to sell our properties to you (at lower than market rates no doubt) to house those you cant accommodate yourself!

Can you now perhaps see that those 'wonderful ideas' you had, like introducing SL, the threat or ever more fines and enforcement on those same people that WERE helping house some on your list, is now working against your 'plan'?

Time for you lot to have a proper rethink! Purchasing of 400 houses. Laughable. Build your own if you want to house your own!

If I had a property in Liverpool I'd rather leave it empty or sell it to a FTB than sell it to you.

Freda Blogs

9:36 AM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

“Revoke S21”, or, in other words, sequestration.

When will both central and local government realise that their actions/inactions towards the PRS have gone some way to kill it off, and by making even more difficult to recover possession, more landlords will want to protect their assets and simply leave the sector, thus exacerbating the lack of accommodation.

The carrot rather than the stick would be a more effective strategy.

PH

10:38 AM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 02/02/2024 - 09:17
Well said. Councils get on my t**s !!

Arthur Oxford

10:38 AM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

Nice to see that this councillor is still on the attack against Private Landlords, laying blame for their housing crisis at our door, due to the issuing of Section 21 Notices putting all of these kind, quiet, rent-paying tenants out on the street for absolutely no reason! That makes perfect sense to landlords who, ofcourse, want empty properties. Quite unbelievable that she appears so obtuse, but, as I have found with all such local and national politicians, they will rigorously stick to their party line, running roughshod over the public's opinion even when it is in black and white in font of them from the results of "public consultations". As previously said, above, if I had an ampty property in Liverpool I would leave it empty, rather than sell to this load of useless mis-managing gobsh****!

Ma'at Housing Solutions

11:41 AM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

Experience of residing in Liverpool as a PR tenant, and a career as a former local authority housing and homelessness officer
( thankfully never in Liverpool!),
I am both aghast and bemused by the audacity and disingenuity of both Liverpool City Council (LCC) and their portfolio holder for Housing!
The ineptitude and failures to comply with statutory duties in addition to a very poor attitude to both prs landlords and tenants by housing staff, believe it or not, are significant contributing factors in the numbers of temporary accommodation placements made and consequential spend.

Temporary Accommodation /'TA' is often the highest budget overspend for local authorities housing departments/ teams. This is probably the case nationally...

But Liverpool...well...where do we begin!
Firstly, the levels of maladministration and malfeasance and the stench of corruption within LCC, became so severe that central government had to act. The then Leader of the Council and Mayor Joe Anderson was subsequently arrested in 2019 on charges of corruption amongst others!...but to date no criminal proceedings and the rest of the criminal cabal at LCC involved in 'brown envelope transactions' remained in post..!

LCC maladministration included:
• £6 million on a new IT system that was never used
• £2.5 million on new vehicles- which were never used
•£ 5.5 million on legal costs, largely due to LCC's mishandling of a corruption investigation
£157,000 on a luxury car for the mayor- inspite of widespread opposition
£32 million overspend on a new road building project which ultimately caused traffic chaos in the area
£15 million on the failed regeneration of a Plaza
£2.5 million on renovating council offices where staff were relocated from shortly afterwards....
See: #maxcallerreport
https://liverpool.gov.uk/council/vision-aims-and-values/best-value-inspection-report/.

LCC's relationship to landlords in the PRS is either' lacking in sufficient professional boundaries' or negligent hostility it seems!
The PRS current/ former head was convicted of x4 counts of benefit fraud the same year they successfully applied for employment with LCC and chose not to disclose this on their application: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/property-developer-nigel-russell-cleared-15490975.amp.

So now Liverpool City Council like every other local authority are waking up to the reality that our PRS landlords are ESSENTIAL to the housing market and the council's statutory compliance of their housing and homelessness duties, through the provision of suitable accommodation whether temporary or permanent,
PRS landlords should therefore be treated better, valued more and have a greater ability to challenge and scrutinize local authority decisions in this area.

Reluctant Landlord

11:56 AM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Ma'at Housing Solutions at 02/02/2024 - 11:41
"PRS landlords should therefore be treated better, valued more and have a greater ability to challenge and scrutinize local authority decisions in this area"

.....and until that U turn happens, there remains no incentive at all for any LL to deal with either the council or offer up our properties to anyone from your housing list. Your housing list will continue to rise and taxpayers foot the bill.

You made your bed...now you lie in it.

I think it's time I got a t-shirt printed ....'It's not my problem'!

Tony Phillips

16:29 PM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 02/02/2024 - 09:17
Absolutely spot on there. Its so blindingly obvious why the PRS is shrinking and homelessness increasing.

Here's an idea for the muppets in local councils. Target ROGUE LL's and ROGUE TENNANTS AND STOP harrassing and charging/licencing the vast majority of good decent LLs.

Michael Booth

18:08 PM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

Fantastic socialist policies will only exasperate this problem ARE YOU LISTENING LIEBOR ESPECIALLY ANGELA RAYNOR over 200 thousand homes left the prs has a direct result of council,goverment and so called homeless charities , and liebor threats more to come when liebor win the next election ,l for one will be out after 25 years.

Stella

20:55 PM, 2nd February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Michael Booth at 02/02/2024 - 18:08
No one will listen and I cannot see BTR filling the gap any time soon.
It seems like they are all suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and their compulsion is to get rid of the PRS.
They simply cannot help themselves!

Paul Essex

16:07 PM, 3rd February 2024, About 3 months ago

Where are these 400 houses coming from?
If already tenanted it will have zero effect, if vacant it can be used to house the tenant evicted for the sale zero gain again.

So they have to buy where previous tenants bought their own house or died, anything else is just pretending to do something.

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