Flintshire Council to save £850,000 by moving homeless people from B&Bs

Moving homeless people from B&Bs and hotels into housing accommodation will save Flintshire County Council almost £850,000 according to the latest in-year savings plan.

The authority is looking for efficiencies and savings across its services as it tackles a £38.4m funding gap and faces the fourth lowest central funding settlement increase in Wales next year.

In housing there is an operating deficit of just over £5.8 million this year. This has been reduced through use of council reserves to £2.8 million, with the department tasked with saving the remaining money through efficiencies.

The latest update to the housing department’s in-year budget report has highlighted that the completion of projects to move homeless people in the county from temporary rental accommodation into housing accommodation between now and April will save £847,528.

And there are plans to extend that work into next year to realise further savings.

Included in the savings plan is the lease of a nine-bedroom house of multiple occupancy in Saltney to accommodate single homeless individuals in need of shelter, which will deliver a full-year saving to the council of £246,868.

The plan also includes 10 properties leased from housing association STORI Cymru – eight of which will be open to residents by the end of the financial year – to offer homeless families temporary accommodation. That will save the council £306,480 over the course of a year.

Finally a programme to use at least five council-owned three-bedroom properties to house two homeless individuals each, with each home used saving the council almost £59,000.

“We do project an overspend at the end of the year, which is particularly down to provision of temporary and emergency accommodation and the high cost of hotel and bed and breakfasts,” chief officer for Housing and Communities Vicky Clark told Flintshire’s Community and Housing Overview Scrutiny Committee.

“We plan to increase our use of HRA council-owned properties by a minimum of five additional units in quarter four. The reason we use three bedroom properties is they are our lower-demand properties so we are not bypassing people already on the housing register.

“With regard the nine-bed HMO in Saltney, the sprinkler system is being fitted this week and we anticipate that individuals will be in the property before Christmas.

“We now have the keys for eight of the 10 properties we will be leasing from STORI and six of those are occupied already so we are on track for delivery by the end of the financial year.

“In the last two months we have been able to affect positive variances in the plan, particularly around homelessness, which have had a positive impact on the plan to the tune of around a quarter of a million pounds.”

By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter