Council refuses to pay for distress caused to family placed in B&B for longer than six-week limit

Leicester City Council has refused to accept a recommendation from an ombudsman to pay a woman £1,300 for placing her and her children in a B&B for longer than six weeks, saying the housing crisis has made use of such temporary accommodation “unavoidable.”

The local authority placed a woman and her children fleeing domestic abuse in a B&B for 19 weeks. The Housing Act states councils must provide alternative housing for households with children or pregnant women after six weeks in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said the local authority should pay the family £1,300 for the distress caused and a further £150 per month for every month she remains in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

The council in a statement however said it is not accepting these recommendations as the lack of suitable housing is “out of control”.

It said the legislation requiring councils to use bed & breakfast accommodation for no longer than six weeks is more than 20 years old and doesn’t take account of the current national housing crisis.

Elly Cutkelvin, deputy city mayor for housing at Leicester City Council said: “Five years ago we had no families living in B&B accommodation in Leicester.

“This year - owing to successive governments’ failures to tackle the housing crisis by building more new homes - we have 171 in B&Bs and a further 365 in other temporary accommodation, including hotels and self-contained flats. I understand how distressing this must be, and the impact it will have on everyday life.

“If a precedent were set by the Ombudsman’s recommendation, we would have to pay out £220,000 in recompense – money we simply don’t have.”

The council said if all councils were required to make payments to families living in unsuitable temporary accommodation this would cost around £130m, on the basis there are an estimated 100,000 families in temporary accommodation. A spokesperson said this “would inevitably push more councils over the edge of the cliff they are already facing.”

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>>See also: More than 150,000 children in England living in temporary accommodation

Leicester City Council said it has agreed to pay the woman £500 for separate failings relating to distress caused by not responding to her concerns about the suitability of refuge accommodation it initially placed her in.

It said: “We do accept that there were some failings in our service in this case. We are sorry for this, and have apologised to the family concerned. Staff training and recruitment is under way to ensure these failings are not repeated.”

The council said it has taken steps to tackle the housing crisis, including investing more than £350m in delivering 1,200 new affordable homes,  providing £45m of funding for temporary accommodation and investing £1.2m in additional homelessness support staff.

Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “While I acknowledge the work Leicester City Council has already done to improve its support for homeless people in the city, and its acceptance of the service improvements I have recommended, I am disappointed with its reluctance to fully acknowledge what has gone wrong in this case. It is not accepting the gravity of the injustice to this family by not agreeing the pay the financial remedy I have recommended.

“The law states that families should only be put in bed and breakfast accommodation as a last resort, and this should be for no longer than six weeks. This family was in bed and breakfast accommodation for 19 weeks. The family was split over two rooms, and had no access to cooking facilities which no doubt had a significant impact on their mental health.”