Birmingham City Council calls for increased grant funding for temporary accommodation alternatives

Birmingham City Council has passed a motion calling on the government to increase grant funding to help councils and housing associations across the country acquire more properties for use as temporary accommodation.

At a full council meeting yesterday, the cabinet member for housing, Councillor Jayne Francis, presented a motion urging the deputy minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner to create a long-term homelessness strategy “with local councils at its heart”.

Francis said that the council wants “fair funding and investment in alternatives to temporary accommodation, and especially the usage of bed and breakfasts”.

She added that “most of all, Lord Mayor, we want investment in the supply of social rented homes”.

In her speech on the motion, Francis stated that the new mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority, Richard Parker, “has the vision to help unlock an extra £146 million for social housing and deliver an extra 2,000 social homes”.

She also said 5,000 households currently live in temporary accommodation in Birmingham, and that 700 of the families who have been living in bed and breakfast facilities for more than six weeks have children. Francis said that as well as the situation being “unacceptable” for people living in temporary accommodation, it is also “unsustainable” for BCC, who are spending £2m a month on temporary housing. 

>> See also: The strain of temporary accommodation: are local authorities’ innovative solutions enough?

>> See also: Government allocates extra £230m to tackling homelessness and rough sleeping in Autumn Budget

Despite support for the motion in the chamber, councillor Gareth Moore highlighted “rightful criticisms” of the council for failing to deliver on its 35% affordable housing target.

Last month, the council began consulting on proposals to lower its affordable housing requirement on brownfield sites from 35% to between 20 and 25%.

Moore referred to “a number of major schemes in the city […] where if this council and administration was actually concerned about delivering affordable housing, it could have done so but has chosen not to”.

He stated that the Smithfield development, which recently received planning approval for 500 homes, will deliver 12% affordable housing.

Perry Barr Athletes Village delivered over 1,000 homes, but Moore noted that the affordable housing target on that was 20%, adding, “that’s been rounded down since as well as a result of the issues there”.

At the Port Loop scheme, over 1,000 houses were delivered and the affordable housing rate was 10%.

Moore said “these are huge schemes, we as the council own the land […] we’re a partner in these developments and we’re delivering pitiful amounts of affordable housing”.

Alongside the council’s temporary accommodation strategy, it says it is working to increase the supply of social rented homes by working with partners to bring forward affordable schemes, including accelerating major regeneration projects such as Druids Heath and Ladywood.

With the motion passed at the council meeting, Birmingham City Council will now write to Rayner urging the new cross-government homelessness taskforce to develop a national homelessness strategy that prioritises investment in social rented homes and alternatives to temporary accommodation.

Yesterday, Rushanara Ali, the minister for homelessness, announced that her department will allocate an additional £10m in rough sleeping funding to local authorities across England this winter.