Havant Borough Council looks at how it can help the homeless and create housing company

Havant Borough Council’s cabinet has outlined ways to address issues such as housing waiting times and temporary accommodation for people experiencing homelessness.

The council significantly overspent its revenue budget last year, with a reported deficit of £775,000 spent on bed and breakfasts and other temporary housing.

Speaking to cabinet, council leader Alex Rennie commented on the budget deficit which has continued into this financial year.

‘In some ways, this is a consequence of the Homelessness Reduction Act, a good consequence I might add, of the changes in statutory responsibility that has been placed on local authorities to ensure that people aren’t homeless.

‘It has seen a large reduction of people on the streets - but it has resulted in a large additional burden in financial responsibilities.

‘I can imagine with the cost of living pressures it’s only going to get harder for our residents so it’s a very important time to be rethinking how we deliver our service.’

Members approved a housing services review panel - a cabinet working group - to provide a report within three months on how to change the service to be more effective.

In a separate but related item, cabinet members discussed a proposal for establishing a company to tackle housing pressures.

Havant’s rising population, which has seen a 2.5 per cent increase over the last year, creates more housing demand which makes prices go up.

Havant’s relative housing affordability ratio went up from 7.29 in 2011 to 10.67 last year - 9.1 is the average in England.

Creating a housing company could provide a variety of benefits to the council and residents, giving the planning authority more direct intervention in the market.

Cabinet lead for affordable housing, Cllr Gwen Robinson said: ‘One of the starkest figures is the number of people who are actually waiting for a home.

‘You have band 1 which is the absolutely urgent priority, band 2 is still a high priority - somebody could still wait for a 2-bed house for two years.

‘If they're in band 3 which is a medium priority, they could be waiting for over five years.

‘That one example tells me that as an authority we need to be trying to address this issue.

‘People are having to be housed outside of the borough often means they are away from their support network which is always stressful.

Cllr Tim Pike added: ‘We’ve got the most unsatisfactory situation where we’re having to house people temporarily outside the borough.

‘The obvious thing would be to create additional provision within the borough. The redevelopment of Brent House is progressing but we’re going to need more.

‘Having the council take an even more active role looks like what we need to do because we’re not getting those approaches from traditional construction companies.’

In December it was estimated that there were 126 homeless people in the Havant borough, although not many are classed as street homeless.