Waltham Forest Council is faced with tackling a £23million overspend on temporary accommodation, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter

Waltham Forest Council will relocate residents outside the borough “more often” as the cost of housing becomes “unsustainable”.

Faced with a £23million overspend on temporary accommodation, the council will now focus on “good homes over location”.

The new strategy, published last week, was approved by top councillors at a cabinet meeting today (Tuesday 4th).

Residents facing homelessness are commonly owed a house duty by their local council, which means the town hall will find them settled accommodation to keep them off the streets.

But due to a city-wide shortage of social housing, councils are often forced to pay high sums to keep these families in hotels and other bed-and-breakfast (B&B) style emergency accommodation.

Council leader Grace Williams said the council had a “moral” responsibility to ensure vulnerable residents were being supported, and a “fiscal” responsibility to taxpayers.

“We need to be clear about what we can and cannot do,” she said, adding that the council needs to ask how it can “meet our duties to those in housing need who can’t afford to live in Waltham Forest”.

Deputy leader Ahsan Khan, who also oversees housing in the borough, said the sheer amount being spent on temporary accommodation was “not sustainable for the council going forward”.

He added it would eventually pose “huge challenges” to the council.

In the report, green-lit by cabinet members, Joe Garrod, the council’s strategic director of place, said officers would “prioritise high-quality temporary accommodation and settled homes, recognising that the rising demand means that we will need to look outside of Waltham Forest more often to find affordable homes for residents”.

The strategy says that the growing waiting list for social housing in Waltham Forest means that “for most residents, moving into the private rented sector outside Waltham Forest is the most realistic route out of temporary accommodation”.

Waltham Forest surveyed people living in temporary housing last month, which found that living there was “negatively impacting” their health, increasing anxiety and “undermining wellbeing”.

Additionally, the cost of renting locally is “prohibitively high,” which clashes with people’s plans to wait for settled, permanent accommodation before finding work.

Cllr Khan said some temporary housing only just met the minimum standards, and life there had a detrimental impact on health, education, job prospects and “wider life chances”.

Last week, Cllr Williams – who also sits as deputy chair of London Councils – told MyLondon: “We don’t want to send families to the north-east [of England], but if the choice is between being able to settle someone into a home that they can afford or for them to live for months or years in hotels, what would residents think is reasonable what we do?”

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