South London council bucks trend and reduces temporary accommodation use

Wandsworth Council has reported that the number of households living in temporary accommodation in the borough has dropped by 20% in the last year from 839  households to 664.

The council provided temporary accommodation to 1,182 households for the first time, a decrease of 2% from the previous year’s 1,204 cases, while net admissions, the number of stood at 664 households.

The use of bed and breakfasts also decreased by 32 placements to just under 2% of all provision. During the year, 3,597 households applied for homelessness assistance, an 8% increase from the previous year’s 3,307 applications.

The local authority attributes the decrease in temporary accommodation use to increased investment in homelessness prevention and casework-based decisions and the creation of additional job posts in the homelessness team.

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The figures come amid mounting concern about rising temporary accommodaiton use nationally. Figures published earlier this month showed that by the end of March 2024, the total number of households living in temporary accommodation rose to 117,450, representing a 12.3% increase from 31 March 2023.

As of 31 March 2024, 151,630 children in England were living in temporary accommodation, a situation described by housing secretary Angela Rayner as a “national scandal.”

In the summer of 2022, Wandsworth Council’s cabinet approved £1.2m of investment to create 23 new positions within the council’s homelessness prevention and solutions team, including caseworkers, procurement officers and temporary accommodation managers.

A council spokesperson stated that the main strategies for preventing homelessness that it is using include casework interventions, such as negotiating with landlords to keep families at risk of homelessness in their current accommodation by negotiating with landlords.

If a household does become homeless, the council looks at housing options and works to support them into suitable private-rented sector accommodation.

A report from the executive director of housing and regeneration published in July noted that some households found their own homes, which the council then helped them to secure by covering deposits and rent in advance.

In other cases, the council found housing and marketed it to households either at risk of homelessness or who are homeless in temporary accommodation.

The council said that “the position around homelessness remains challenging for the various reasons set out in the report but temporary accommodation usage has continued to stabilise during 2023/24 following investment in the service approved in 2022.”

The report added that the council proposes to create four new job positions in housing services to meet the ongoing pressures linked to increases in workload over the last year.

The council plans to hire a new deputy manager of housing reviews, two property managers and a deputy manager of rough sleeping, which will cost the local authority £201,000 per year. 

Aydin Dikerdem, cabinet member for housing, said: “In the fact of the worst temporary accommodation homelessness crisis facing local authorities since records began, it is pleasing to note that in Wandsworth Council, use of temporary accommodation slowed significantly. Despite all those challenges, we are particularly pleased that the use of bed and breakfast has fallen to just under 2% of all provision.

“We are working hard to tackle this issue head on. That is why we expanded the homelessness prevention team, and already we are seeing this having a positive impact on our service.”