Council spends nearly £150k on bed and breakfasts in the past year as authority faces rising challenges

This comes as the authority faces increasing challenges in housing rough sleepers and finding emergency accommodation for families.

The expensive costs of bed and breakfast can be reduced by leased accommodation.

This is why the authority are increasing their stock of leased accommodation from 9 to 15 from Homes Plus.

The Spend to date on Bed and Breakfast is £147 293.72, with final costs of circa £353.505.00 for 2023/2024. However, with leased accommodation the cost is significantly lower at only £64,680 per year.

According to a cabinet report, the average estimated cost of leased accommodation is £8,312.00 per unit, per year. Averagely the rent is £5,000, with housing benefit of £4,000; this means the cost per unit of leased accommodation is £4,312 per year.

The past year has seen a significant increase in demand for the housing options service, this includes for both help and advice but also emergency accommodation. One of the key issues is most presentations to the service are single homeless with multiple support needs who are not easily able to access the supported accommodation provision in the Borough.

Options are offered outside the Borough but are often refused by the individual. However, the local authority has a statutory duty to provide emergency accommodation to households who are eligible for assistance, homeless and in priority need.

Another key issue facing the service and sending costs spiralling is that families can only be housed in bed and breakfast for six weeks. This means there is greater pressure to find suitable accommodation.

Cabinet member for Jill Hood told councillors: “The temporary review was considered in the spring and recommended Stafford increase their portfolio of 15 emergency accommodation units to 35 in the hope that it would eliminate the need for expensive bed and breakfasts. We do not have the staff to manage more than 15 units of leased accommodation.

“The government has committed to ending rough sleeping by 2025. Committing to ending rough sleeping is a bold statement and one that I do not see that will be achieved within the financial climate we are facing."